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A Danish citizen has been found guilty of uploading nude scenes from copyrighted films and TV series on the online platform Reddit.

According to a law enforcement report reviewed by media outlets, the unnamed individual posted 347 clips of nude content in a Reddit group he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

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

Legal analysts say the defendant was prosecuted under a rarely-used provision in Danish copyright law, with the judge ruling that by taking the scenes out of their intended setting, the accused had damaged the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has also been found guilty of sharing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted digital content.

From spring 2022 to May 2023, the man known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit posted sexually explicit clips including over 100 female performers.

He distributed them in the subreddit he was a moderator of.

Per the Denmark's anti-piracy organization The Rights Alliance (TRA), his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were prompted to request clips of specific performers.

In 2023, advocates filed the incident to the police on behalf of the affected actors, directors and producers, which led to the forum being shut down.

One actress, among the performers whose explicit content were circulated in the community, explained to Danish broadcasters at the period she believed there was a distinction between being seen naked in a movie and being shown on Reddit.

The actress said the uploads amounted to "abuse".

'A significant message'

The defendant was arrested in fall 2024 and pleaded culpable to the charges recently.

In a statement after the ruling, TRA head the organization's leader remarked the outcome sent an "important" signal "that violations of creators' rights have consequences".

The ruling is considered unprecedented in Denmark for its application of the "moral rights" clause of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an creator's creation cannot be used in a manner which violates their reputation.

Intellectual property specialist Dr Alina Trapova informed BBC News the case was "unusual" for its focus on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them financially.

How the ruling could influence other countries is unclear.

But she said there may be "an increasing number of these actions" in the future with the advancement of AI, where "the integrity of an individual's creative output might be compromised much more easily".