Danish national individual given deferred prison term for distributing explicit movie scenes on Reddit
A Danish man has been found guilty of sharing nude segments from copyrighted films and TV series on the online site Reddit.
Based on a police report obtained by BBC News, the anonymous man shared 347 video excerpts of nude scenes in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.
The country's police state he has been handed a 7-month suspended sentence for copyright infringement.
Legal analysts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a rarely-used clause in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the court ruling that by removing the scenes out of their intended setting, the man had harmed the artists' "moral rights".
He has additionally been convicted of sharing more than 25 TB of protected data.
From spring 2022 to May 2023, the user using the alias "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips including over 100 actresses.
He shared them in the forum he was a administrator of.
Per the Danish anti-piracy organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were prompted to request clips of particular actors.
In 2023, advocates filed the case to the police on behalf of the affected artists, directors and producers, which led to the subreddit being shut down.
One actress, among the performers whose nude content were circulated in the community, explained to Danish broadcasters at the time she believed there was a distinction between being seen naked in a movie and being shown on Reddit.
The performer stated the posts amounted to "abuse".
'An important message'
The man was detained in September 2024 and admitted guilty to the allegations recently.
In a statement after the ruling, TRA head the organization's leader said the decision sent an "significant" message "that infringements of artists' entitlements has consequences".
The verdict is considered unprecedented in the country for its application of the "ethical protections" section of the national copyright law, which specifies an creator's work cannot be utilized in a manner which infringes upon their reputation.
Copyright law expert Dr Alina Trapova informed the media the case was "rare" for its emphasis on the damage to the integrity of an performer, rather than to them economically.
The extent to which the ruling could influence other countries is unclear.
But she added there may be "more and more of these actions" in the future with the growth of AI, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with much more easily".
