A book about Spain’s drug-smuggling underworld banned last week by a Madrid court has been brought to readers online as a cut-and-pasted text from Spanish classic Don Quixote.

Kicking against what they consider outdated censorship, a booksellers’ association has reacted to the seizure of the non-fiction book ‘Fariña’ by launching a website to replicate it word for word.

The website includes a digital tool that searches for and locates the 80,000 words that make up the forbidden manuscript from within the text of Don Quixote, extracting them one by one to recompose the banned book. On Friday after two days online, the website had racked up over 30,000 hits, according to the Booksellers Guild of Madrid.

“We discovered that all the words of ‘Fariña' were contained one way or another in Don Quixote, and it was just a case of finding a mechanism to make them appear in the right order,” explains Fernando Valverde, the Guild secretary.

Words that weren’t around in the early 17th century and some proper nouns are made up by the search engine syllable by syllable from Miguel de Cervantes’ gigantic tome.

It is not clear whether the ruse is a legal way for people to read it.</s>LISBON, Portugal (AP) - When Miguel de Cervantes wrote "Don Quixote" in the 17th century, he couldn't have imagined that the novel would be used as a weapon in a modern battle over freedom of speech in Spain.

In defiance of a court order banning a book that investigates drug trafficking in Spain, the Madrid Booksellers' Guild has launched an online tool that automatically pulls some 80,000 words from the classic novel to piece together the contents of the banned work.

"We feel that this prohibition of a book, which is something that hasn't happened in Spain for more than 30 years, is an attack on our freedoms," Fernando Valverde of the Booksellers' Guild told The Associated Press.

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2018 file photo, friends and supporters of rap singer Pablo Hasel, whose real surname is Rivadulla give him support at the National court where he appeared accused of tweeting messages between 2014-16 in defense of members of ETA and GRAPO, two armed groups ranked by Spain as terror organizations, and also insulting police in Madrid, Spain. Messages on banner read 'Without freedom of speech there is no democracy' 'Absolution for Pablo Hasel and Kaiet' Total amnesty'. The Madrid Booksellers' Guild is using a digital tool that automatically pulls around 80,000 words from Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote," a classic of Spanish and western literature, to recreate online a recent court-banned book. The tool seeks to sidestep a judge's prohibition last month of the book that investigates drug-trafficking in Spain. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)

The booksellers' move is the latest flare-up in a wider legal and political dispute over freedom of expression that has been rumbling in Spain in recent months. Other flashpoints include the cancellation of a photo exhibition on political prisoners, and prison sentences for rappers over lyrics deemed insulting to the Spanish royals.

The banned book controversy centers on "Farina" ("Flour," a slang term for cocaine,) published in 2015 by journalist Nacho Carretero. The book investigates drug smuggling in Galicia, a region in the northwestern corner of Spain, and was made into a Spanish TV series which premiered last month.

Among other things, the book recounts charges and court proceedings in cocaine investigations that involved a former Galician politician, Jose Bea Gondar.

Gondar accuses Carretero and his publisher, Libros del KO, of tarnishing his reputation. He wants references to him taken out of the book and 500,000 euros ($620,000) in damages.

A judge last month ordered a temporary ban on sales, which had reached around 35,000 copies, while the court considers the case.

The Madrid Booksellers' Guild this month launched "Finding Farina in Don Quixote," an online tool which it calls "a way of defending liberty and freedom of expression."

Clicking on a link on the www.findingfarina.com website gradually pulls up the first page of the book as the tool visibly grabs the words it needs from "Don Quixote" on the right hand side of the web page. It does the same for each new page of "Farina." For people's names and for words not used in Cervantes' time, it picks out syllables and sticks them together. It's not an easy read but Valverde, of the Madrid Booksellers' Guild, says that's not the point.

The tool "demonstrates how ridiculous and anachronistic" the judge's decision was in a digital age, he said.

The court has not yet reacted to the website's launch, he said.

It's one of several recent controversies about freedom of expression in Spain. Many were outraged that artistic license was being censored when prison sentences were slapped on Spanish rappers last month over lyrics that were deemed to be praising terror groups, encouraging violence and insulting the Spanish Crown and the police.

Also last month, a government-funded body running the venue for the prestigious Madrid's International Contemporary Art Fair was accused of censorship when it pulled a photo exhibition called "Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain." It argued that controversy over the exhibit was hogging public attention, but later apologized for the move and insisted it wasn't intended as censorship.

In another case, many people cheered when the European Court of Human Rights rebuffed the Spanish judiciary in a ruling against protections afforded by Spanish courts to the royal family. The European court earlier this month sided with two Spaniards who set fire in public to a photograph of Spain's king and queen, saying their protest amounted to freedom of expression. They were initially sentenced in Spain to 15 months in prison.

Some other similar controversies in Spain have stemmed from a crackdown on perceived terror threats and echo a debate that has been repeated in recent years across Europe.

Article 578 of the Spanish Criminal Code, punishing anyone who "glorifies terrorism," was expanded in 2015 after terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. It cast its net so wide that puppeteers purveying political satire, journalists, musicians and everyday users of social media have fallen foul of the law. Some believe the law went too far.

"Spain is emblematic of a disturbing trend which has seen states across Europe unduly restricting expression on the pretext of national security and stripping away rights under the guise of defending them," Eda Seyhan, Amnesty International's campaigner on counter-terrorism, said in a report earlier this month.

"People should not face criminal prosecution simply for saying, tweeting or singing something that might be distasteful or shocking," Amnesty International's report said. "Spain's broad and vaguely-worded law is resulting in the silencing of free speech and the crushing of artistic expression."</s>LISBON, Portugal — The Latest on the freedom of speech controversy centred on a banned book in Spain (all times local):

A website that defied Spanish court orders banning a book investigating drug trafficking in Spain has been taken down.

The Madrid Booksellers’ Guild earlier launched an online tool that automatically pulls some 80,000 words from Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel “Don Quixote,” and pieces them together to recreate the contents of the banned work.

But the court struck back. The website was no longer available Tuesday, less than two weeks after its launch. A one-sentence explanation on the home page said it was removed on court orders.

The website was the latest flare-up in a wider legal and political dispute over freedom of expression in Spain.

When Miguel de Cervantes wrote “Don Quixote” in the 17th century, he couldn’t have imagined that the novel would be used as a weapon in a modern battle over freedom of speech in Spain.

In defiance of a court order banning a book that investigates drug trafficking in Spain, the Madrid Booksellers’ Guild has launched an online tool that automatically pulls some 80,000 words from the classic novel to piece together the contents of the banned work.

The booksellers say the tool “demonstrates how ridiculous and anachronistic” the judge’s banning order was in a digital age.

The booksellers’ move is the latest flare-up in a wider legal and political dispute over freedom of expression that has been rumbling in Spain in recent months.
A Madrid court issues an order shutting down a website that uses extracts from Don Quixote to recreate the book Farina. Farina, an investigation of drug trafficking, is the subject of a freedom of speech debate after a court halted sales ahead of a libel case.