Paris - French police have arrested a teenager suspected of posting a French-language translation of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" on the Internet weeks before its official release, Reuters reported.

The 16-year-old from the Aix-en-Provence region was picked up by a police anti-counterfeiting unit, and later released.

"Concerned that such acts of counterfeiting are threats to basic authors' and creators' rights, [author J.K. Rowling and Gallimard, the book's publisher in France] immediately agreed to support the investigation as it was launched," spokeswoman Marie Leroy-Lena told Reuters.

"It is not a young person or a fan we are talking about here -- these are organized networks that use young people."

An investigation is ongoing, and neither Rowling nor Gallimard has yet filed a lawsuit, she added.

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http://tinyurl.com/2awfbx (Reuters)