The strikes were made on Tuesday in a collaboration between the bodies Eurojust and Europol. According to Eurojust, which coordinated the effort, the strikes were carried out in a total of 18 countries - including Sweden.

More than 60 servers are said to have been seized in the USA, Europe and Asia and several arrests have been made. Among other things, a man from Cyprus was arrested this weekend on suspicion of having played a leading role in the pirate network, Eurojust states. Another person is said to have been arrested in the United States.

- This case is an excellent example of what can be achieved if we cooperate across borders and continents. Thanks to a long partnership between American and European authorities, we have succeeded in carrying out a significant blow to piracy online, says Eurojust's President Ladislav Hamran in a statement.

Available in 18 countries

According to court documents, the pirate network must have been active since 2016 and be one of the largest in the world when it comes to illegally distributed films and television programs. They are also said to have distributed illegal DVDs and Blu-ray discs on movies and TV shows that have not yet been released, uploaded the material to servers and made it available via, among other things, streaming sites and file sharing.

According to Eurojust, the operation has resulted in the American film industry losing millions of dollars annually.

In addition to Sweden, strikes took place in South Korea, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. Efforts were also made in Italy and Canada.