Danish national man receives suspended sentence for sharing explicit movie scenes on Reddit
A Danish citizen has been found guilty of uploading sexually explicit scenes from copyrighted movies and TV series on the social media site Reddit.
Based on a law enforcement report reviewed by media outlets, the anonymous individual shared 347 clips of explicit content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.
Danish authorities state he has been given a seven-month deferred sentence for copyright infringement.
Experts say the defendant was charged under a seldom-invoked clause in Denmark's copyright law, with the judge ruling that by removing the scenes out of their intended setting, the man had harmed the artists' "moral rights".
He has also been convicted of distributing more than 25 TB of copyrighted data.
From March 2022 to mid-2023, the user using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips including over 100 female performers.
He distributed them in the forum he was a administrator of.
Per the Denmark's anti-piracy organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 members and participants were prompted to ask for excerpts of particular actors.
In 2023, campaigners filed the incident to the authorities on behalf of the affected artists, filmmakers and producers, which led to the subreddit being shut down.
Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actresses whose nude scenes were shared in the community, explained to local media at the time she felt there was a difference between being seen unclothed in a film and being shown on Reddit.
The actress said the uploads amounted to "exploitation".
'A significant signal'
The defendant was detained in September 2024 and admitted guilty to the allegations recently.
In a statement following the verdict, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund said the outcome sent an "significant" message "indicating violations of artists' entitlements has consequences".
The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in the country for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which specifies an artist's work cannot be used in a manner which violates their standing.
Copyright law specialist Dr Alina Trapova told BBC News the case was "rare" for its focus on the harm to the integrity of an artist, rather than to them economically.
The extent to which the ruling could influence other countries is uncertain.
But she added there may be "an increasing number of these actions" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the integrity of one's work might be compromised much more easily".
