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A Danish citizen has been convicted of uploading sexually explicit segments from protected films and TV series on the social media platform Reddit.

According to a law enforcement report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed man shared 347 video excerpts of explicit content in a subreddit he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.

The country's police state he has been given a seven-month deferred sentence for violating copyright laws.

Experts say the man was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the court finding that by taking the footage out of their original context, the accused had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has also been convicted of distributing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted digital content.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the user using the alias "KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult clips including over 100 actresses.

He shared them in the forum he was a administrator of.

According to the Danish copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were prompted to ask for clips of particular actors.

In 2023, campaigners filed the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, filmmakers and production companies, which led to the subreddit being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the actresses whose nude content were shared in the community, explained to Danish broadcasters at the period she felt there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The actress stated the posts amounted to "exploitation".

'A significant message'

The defendant was detained in September 2024 and admitted guilty to the charges recently.

In a comment following the ruling, TRA head Maria Fredenslund said the decision sent an "significant" signal "indicating infringements of creators' entitlements has consequences".

The ruling is considered unique in the country for its use of the "moral rights" section of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an artist's work cannot be utilized in a manner which infringes upon their reputation.

Intellectual property expert a legal scholar informed BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

The extent to which the ruling could influence nations abroad is uncertain.

But she added there may be "more and more of such cases" in the future with the advancement of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of one's work might be compromised with greater ease".