Danish national man receives deferred prison term for distributing nude film clips on Reddit

A Danish citizen has been found guilty of uploading nude segments from copyrighted movies and television shows on the online site Reddit.

According to a police document obtained by BBC News, the unnamed man posted 347 clips of nude content in a Reddit group he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million-plus times.

Danish police state he has been given a 7-month deferred sentence for violating copyright laws.

Experts say the man was charged under a rarely-used provision 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 performers' "moral rights".

He has additionally been convicted of sharing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted data.

From spring 2022 to May 2023, the man using the alias "KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded sexually explicit scenes including over 100 female performers.

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

According to the Danish anti-piracy group The Rights Alliance (TRA), his online community had more than 6,000 members and users were prompted to ask for excerpts of specific actors.

In 2023, advocates filed the incident to the authorities on behalf of the affected artists, filmmakers and production companies, which led to the subreddit being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actresses whose explicit scenes were circulated in the group, told Danish broadcasters at the period she felt there was a distinction between appearing naked in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The actress said the uploads constituted "abuse".

'An important message'

The man was arrested in September 2024 and admitted culpable to the charges recently.

In a statement following the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the outcome sent an "significant" message "indicating infringements of creators' rights has consequences".

The ruling is viewed as unique in Denmark for its use of the "moral rights" section of the Danish Copyright Act, which specifies an artist's work cannot be used in a way which violates their standing.

Intellectual property specialist Dr Alina Trapova told the media the case was "rare" for its emphasis on the harm to the dignity of an performer, rather than to them financially.

How the ruling could influence other countries is uncertain.

But she added there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the future with the growth of AI, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with much more easily".