Danish man given suspended sentence for sharing nude film scenes on Reddit

A Danish man has been found guilty of sharing nude scenes from copyrighted movies and TV series on social media site Reddit.

According to a police document seen by BBC News, the unnamed man shared 347 clips of nude scenes on a Reddit group he moderates, which were subsequently viewed 4.2 million times.

Danish police announced that he was given a seven-month suspended prison sentence for copyright infringement.

Experts said the man was prosecuted under a rarely used clause in Danish copyright law, and the judge found that he had harmed the artists’ “moral rights” by removing scenes from their original context.

He was also found guilty of sharing more than 25 terabytes of copyrighted data.

The man, known as “KlammereFyr” on Reddit, posted explicit scenes featuring more than 100 actresses from March 2022 to May 2023.

He shared them in the subreddit or forum he moderated.

According to the Danish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance (TRA)The subreddit had over 6,000 members, and users were encouraged to request clips of specific actors.

In 2023, campaigners reported the incident to the police on behalf of the affected actors, directors and producers, which led to the closure of the subreddit.

Andrea Vagn Jensen, one of the actors whose obscene scenes were shared in the group, he told Danish broadcaster DR at the time She felt there was a difference between appearing nude in a movie and appearing on Reddit.

The actor said his posts amounted to “abuse”.

The man was arrested in September 2024 and pleaded guilty to the charges last month.

In a statement following the decision, TRA president Maria Fredenslund said that the decision gave an “important” signal that “violations of artists’ rights have consequences.”

The decision is considered unique in Denmark due to its use of the “moral rights” section of the Danish Copyright Act, which states that an artist’s work cannot be used in a way that violates their reputation.

Copyright law expert Dr. Alina Trapova told the BBC that the case was “rare” because the focus was on the damage to the artist’s integrity rather than the economic aspect.

It is unclear how the case will affect other countries.

But with the development of artificial intelligence, he said there may be “more and more of these actions” in the future and “the integrity of a person’s work can be adjusted much more easily.”