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

According to a law enforcement report obtained by BBC News, the anonymous individual posted 347 clips of explicit content in a subreddit he moderated, which were then watched 4.2 million times.

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

Legal analysts say the man was charged under a seldom-invoked provision in Danish intellectual property legislation, with the court finding that by removing the scenes out of their intended setting, the man had harmed the artists' "ethical entitlements".

He has also been found guilty of distributing more than 25 TB of protected data.

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the man known as "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 organization the Rights Alliance, his online community had more than 6,000 members and users were prompted to ask for clips of specific performers.

In 2023, advocates filed the case to the authorities on behalf of the impacted artists, directors and producers, which resulted in the forum being shut down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose explicit scenes were shared in the group, told local broadcasters at the period she believed there was a distinction between being seen unclothed in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The actress said the posts constituted "abuse".

'An important message'

The defendant was detained in fall 2024 and admitted culpable to the charges last month.

In a statement after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the outcome sent an "important" signal "that infringements of artists' rights have consequences".

The ruling is viewed as unprecedented in Denmark for its application of the "ethical protections" clause of the national copyright law, which specifies an creator's creation cannot be utilized in a way which violates their standing.

Copyright law expert Dr Alina Trapova told BBC News the case was "unusual" for its emphasis on the damage to the dignity of an artist, rather than to them economically.

How the ruling could influence other countries is unclear.

But she said there may be "more and more of these actions" in the future with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the sanctity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".