European police target online film piracy network

(STOCKHOLM) - Police in 14 European countries on Tuesday launched a series of raids against an online film pirating network, Swedish authorities said.

The major operation, organised after a two-year investigation by Belgian police, targetted a network called "The Scene", which offered downloads of films before they were available on DVD, according to a statement by Swedish prosecutors.

Police targetted 48 sites across Europe that were part of the network, said Paul Pinter, a Swedish police officer from the minor crimes unit.

Belgian prosecutors will hold a briefing on the case on Wednesday.

In Sweden, police raided seven locations including one in a suburb of Stockholm containing servers used by file-sharing website The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks, the whisteblowing website.

Pinter said the raids had "nothing to do" with WikiLeaks.