Belgian police announced a European raid in 14 countries leading to 10 arrests related to copyrighted movies and music shared online through four different organized groups.

Five suspects were arrested in Belgium, with five remaining piracy ring leaders arrested in Poland, Sweden and Norway. They’ve been charged with crimes ranging from computer fraud and copyright infringement to being a member of a criminal organization.

The suspects were motivated more to share mass amounts of copyrighted files rather than monetary profit, police sources told European members of the press.

Christophe Van Mechelen, from the Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation (BAF), said that the action was mostly targeted to international networks of people whose sole purpose is to acquire copyrighted entertainment via camcording of movies in cinemas or hacking of websites from music or movie studios.

In Belgium, Poland, Germany,Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and five other nations, a total of 48 servers helped distribute the copyrighted material, Belgian police now claim.

The Belgian police led the two-year investigation into Dutch language piracy – four total groups were monitored – with Dutch TV episodes and movies widely shared.

Story filed 14.09.10