Danish man receives suspended sentence for sharing explicit movie clips on Reddit

A Danish man has been found guilty of sharing sexually explicit segments from copyrighted films and TV series on the online platform Reddit.

Based on a law enforcement report obtained by BBC News, the unnamed man posted 347 clips of explicit content in a subreddit he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

The country's authorities confirm he has been given a 7-month deferred sentence for violating copyright laws.

Legal analysts say the man was charged under a seldom-invoked provision in Denmark's copyright law, with the judge ruling that by taking the scenes out of their intended setting, the accused had harmed the artists' "moral rights".

He has also been found guilty of distributing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted data.

From spring 2022 to May 2023, the user using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit clips featuring over 100 actresses.

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

Per the Denmark's anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and participants were encouraged to ask for clips of particular performers.

In 2023, campaigners filed the case to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, directors and producers, which resulted in the forum being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, among the performers whose nude scenes were shared in the community, told local media at the time she believed there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The actress stated the posts constituted "abuse".

'A significant signal'

The man was detained in September 2024 and pleaded culpable to the allegations recently.

In a statement after the verdict, TRA head Maria Fredenslund remarked the outcome sent an "significant" signal "indicating violations of creators' entitlements have repercussions".

The verdict is viewed as unprecedented in the country for its use of the "moral rights" clause of the national copyright law, which states an artist's work cannot be used in a way which infringes upon their reputation.

Intellectual property expert a legal scholar informed the media the case was "unusual" for its focus on the harm to the integrity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

The extent to which the case could affect other countries is uncertain.

But she added there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the advancement of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of one's creative output might be compromised with greater ease".