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A Danish man has been convicted of uploading sexually explicit scenes from copyrighted movies and TV series on the online platform Reddit.

Based on a law enforcement document reviewed by BBC News, the anonymous man posted 347 clips of nude scenes in a subreddit he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

The country's police state he has been given a seven-month suspended jail term for copyright infringement.

Experts say the man was prosecuted under a rarely-used clause in Denmark's copyright law, with the court ruling that by removing the scenes out of their original context, the accused had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has also been convicted of sharing more than 25 TB of copyrighted digital content.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the man known as "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult clips featuring over 100 actresses.

He shared them in the subreddit he was a moderator of.

Per the Denmark's copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were prompted to ask for excerpts of specific actors.

In 2023, campaigners reported the case to the police on behalf of the affected actors, filmmakers and producers, which resulted in the forum being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actresses whose explicit content were shared in the group, explained to Danish media at the period she felt there was a difference between appearing naked in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The performer said the posts constituted "exploitation".

'A significant message'

The defendant was detained in September 2024 and pleaded culpable to the charges last month.

In a comment after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund remarked the outcome sent an "significant" signal "indicating infringements of creators' rights have repercussions".

The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in the country for its use of the "moral rights" section of the Danish Copyright Act, which states an artist's creation cannot be utilized in a way which violates their standing.

Intellectual property expert Dr Alina Trapova told the media the legal matter was "rare" for its emphasis on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them financially.

How the ruling could affect nations abroad is unclear.

But she said there may be "more and more of such cases" in the future with the growth of AI, where "the sanctity of one's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".