Pirated Blu-Ray Version Of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” leaked on Torrent websites
With less than two weeks left for the official Blu-Ray release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, the first pirated copies of the Disney’s planned home-video release has been leaked online in advance of its retail debut.
The first pirated copies of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” appeared online late Tuesday, and within 12 hours had been downloaded by about 250,000 people, according to piracy-news site TorrentFreak, which first reported the leak. This number is expected to increase to several millions during the weeks to come. The movie leaked to sites like Kickass Torrents, the Pirate Bay and others.
Disney has set April 1 for the home-video release of the film, followed by Blu-ray release on April 5th. The movie has grossed more than $2 billion worldwide at the box office.
Shortly after the movie’s theatrical debut last December, lower-quality “cam” rips of “Force Awakens” appeared on pirate sites. However, the latest leak seems to be the first DVD-quality copy to hit piracy networks.
According to TorrentFreak, an image accompanying the pirated “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” copies indicate the rip came from a regular retail DVD.
Disney and Lucasfilm in the recent weeks have tried to restrict the exposure of pirated copies. Despite the companies sending out tens of thousands of takedown requests to Google, the film still remains widely available on most pirate sites. With the early pirate release, the movie studios are surely going to lose some of the home entertainment revenues.
Over Christmas, pirates were treated to a bonanza of leaks as dozens of award-nominated films were released illegally online – including “The Hateful Eight,” “Legends,” “Steve Jobs,” and “Bridge of Spies.” However, “Star Wars” was not among them.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” a resounding success for Disney, was directed by J.J. Abrams, and written by Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt, and produced by Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Bryan Burk. The film stars Harrison Ford, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley.
