A Danish man has been convicted of uploading nude segments from protected films and television shows on the social media platform Reddit.
Based on a police report reviewed by media outlets, the anonymous individual shared 347 clips of explicit content in a subreddit he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.
The country's authorities state he has been given a 7-month deferred sentence for copyright infringement.
Legal analysts explain the man was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked clause in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by taking the footage out of their original context, the accused had damaged the artists' "moral rights".
He has additionally been convicted of sharing more than 25 TB of copyrighted digital content.
From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the man using the alias "the pseudonym KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes including over 100 actresses.
He shared them in the forum he was a administrator of.
According to the Denmark's copyright protection group the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 members and participants were encouraged to request clips of specific performers.
In last year, campaigners filed the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted actors, directors and production companies, which led to the subreddit being shut down.
One actress, among the actresses whose nude content were shared in the group, told Danish media at the period she felt there was a difference between appearing naked in a film and being shown on Reddit.
The performer said the uploads constituted "exploitation".
'A significant message'
The defendant was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded guilty to the allegations recently.
In a comment after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance Maria Fredenslund said the outcome sent an "significant" signal "indicating infringements of creators' rights has repercussions".
The ruling is considered unprecedented in the country for its application of the "moral rights" clause of the national copyright law, which specifies an creator's work cannot be used in a manner which infringes upon their standing.
Copyright law expert a legal scholar told BBC News the legal matter was "unusual" for its focus on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them financially.
The extent to which the case could influence nations abroad is uncertain.
But she added there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of AI, where "the integrity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".
