Europe raids on file-sharing groups

The raids followed an investigation by Belgian police that began two years ago [EPA]

Authorities in more than a dozen European nations have launched a crackdown on an online file-sharing network.

Swedish officials said that raids had been undertaken in 14 countries on Tuesday in a major operation that followed two years of investigations by Belgian police.

The majority of the police action occurred in Sweden, according to TorrentFreak, a file-sharing news website.

A network named The Scene was a key target, according to a statement from Swedish prosecutors.

The Scene was said to have offered films before they were available on DVD.

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

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

However, that service provider said that officers had visited them but only asked questions over two suspect IP addresses, and that no computers or other goods had been seized.

Frederick Ingblad, a Swedish Prosecutor, confirmed to local media that Wikileaks was not involved in the current action.

Locations in Malmo, Umea University and Eskilstuna were also raided in Sweden.

Reports state that four people are reportedly being questioned on alleged breach of copyright law, with servers and computers having been taken by authorities.

Raids were also said to have been carried out in the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, the UK, the Czech Republic and Hungary.