Danish man receives suspended prison term for posting explicit movie scenes on Reddit

A Denmark-based citizen has been found guilty of sharing nude scenes from protected movies and television shows on the social media platform Reddit.

Based on a police report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed man posted 347 clips of nude content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.

The country's authorities state he has been given a 7-month suspended jail term for copyright infringement.

Legal analysts explain the defendant was charged under a rarely-used provision in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the court ruling that by removing the scenes out of their original context, the accused had damaged the performers' "ethical entitlements".

He has additionally been found guilty of sharing more than 25 TB of protected digital content.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the man using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit scenes including over 100 actresses.

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

Per the Danish copyright protection group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were encouraged to ask for excerpts of particular actors.

In 2023, advocates filed the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted artists, directors and producers, which led to the subreddit being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the performers whose nude scenes were shared in the group, explained to local broadcasters at the period she felt there was a difference between appearing naked in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The performer said the posts amounted to "abuse".

'An important signal'

The defendant was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded guilty to the allegations last month.

In a comment after the ruling, TRA head Maria Fredenslund said the decision sent an "important" signal "that infringements of creators' rights has consequences".

The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in Denmark for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an creator's work cannot be used in a manner which violates their reputation.

Intellectual property specialist Dr Alina Trapova told BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its focus on the harm to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them financially.

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

But she said there may be "more and more of these actions" in the coming years with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of an individual's work might be tempered with with greater ease".