Spanish police conduct major anti-piracy operation

[Len]

Spain's paramilitary police, The Guardia Civil, has blocked 23 websites that were distributing pirate series and films.

According to the law enforcement agency, the move is part of a major anti-piracy operation named Cascada that aims to combat illegal content distribution platforms which don't comply with Spain's copyright laws.

The blocked sites, which include popular webs like Divxtotal, Estrenosdtl or Gamestorrents, are all managed from Argentina, but 80% of the traffic was based in Spain.

"The managers of these websites used different methods to avoid the closure of the platforms, like hiding the real localisation of the servers or the domains' information," pointed out sources from the Guardia Civil. "They were able to reactivate blocked websites within few hours."

According to the police body, the unit of online crimes has taken special measure to guarantee the total closure of the pirate platforms, the domains are blocked and the downloading links have been erased.

The Cascada operation is not closed yet and the Guardia Civil has stated more raids can be expected during the week.

The police operation has been deployed short after Spain's Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were ordered to block access to two main pirate sites following demands from major US films studios.