Danish national man receives deferred prison term for posting nude film scenes on Reddit

A Danish citizen has been found guilty of uploading nude segments from protected films and television shows on the social media site Reddit.

According to a police document obtained by media outlets, the anonymous man posted 347 video excerpts of explicit scenes in a Reddit group he managed, which were then viewed 4.2 million times.

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

Experts say the defendant was prosecuted under a seldom-invoked provision in Denmark's intellectual property legislation, with the judge finding that by removing the footage out of their original context, the accused had damaged the performers' "moral rights".

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

From spring 2022 to mid-2023, the user known as "KlammereFyr" on Reddit uploaded adult scenes featuring over 100 actresses.

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

Per the Danish copyright protection organization the Rights Alliance, his subreddit had more than 6,000 subscribers and users were encouraged to request excerpts of specific actors.

In 2023, campaigners filed the incident to the police on behalf of the impacted artists, directors and producers, which resulted in the forum being closed down.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the performers whose explicit content were circulated in the group, explained to Danish media at the period she believed there was a difference between appearing unclothed in a film and appearing on Reddit.

The actress stated the uploads constituted "abuse".

'A significant signal'

The defendant was arrested in fall 2024 and pleaded guilty to the allegations recently.

In a comment after the ruling, the head of the Rights Alliance the organization's leader said the outcome sent an "significant" signal "indicating violations of artists' rights has repercussions".

The ruling is viewed as unprecedented 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 manner which violates their standing.

Copyright law specialist a legal scholar informed the media the legal matter was "unusual" for its emphasis on the harm to the integrity of an performer, rather than to them economically.

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

But she said there may be "an increasing number of such cases" in the coming years with the growth of artificial intelligence, where "the integrity of an individual's creative output might be tempered with with greater ease".