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A Denmark-based man has been found guilty of uploading sexually explicit segments from protected movies and television shows on the online site Reddit.

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

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

Experts explain the defendant was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Denmark's copyright law, with the court finding that by removing the scenes out of their original context, the man had damaged the performers' "moral rights".

He has additionally been convicted of sharing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted digital content.

From March 2022 to May 2023, the user known as "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips featuring over 100 female performers.

He distributed them in the subreddit he was a administrator of.

Per the Denmark's anti-piracy organization the Rights Alliance, his subreddit had more than 6,000 members and users were encouraged to ask for clips of specific performers.

In last year, campaigners reported the incident to the authorities on behalf of the impacted actors, filmmakers and production companies, which resulted in the subreddit being shut down.

One actress, one of the actresses whose nude content were circulated in the community, told local broadcasters at the period she believed there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The performer stated the uploads amounted to "abuse".

'An important signal'

The defendant was arrested in September 2024 and admitted culpable to the charges last month.

In a statement after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund said the decision sent an "important" signal "that infringements of artists' entitlements have repercussions".

The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in Denmark for its application of the "moral rights" clause of the national copyright law, which states an creator's creation cannot be used in a manner which violates their reputation.

Intellectual property expert a legal scholar told BBC News the case was "rare" for its emphasis on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

The extent to which the case could influence nations abroad is unclear.

But she added there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of one's creative output might be tempered with much more easily".