An "incomplete and early version" of the latest X-Men movie has been stolen and posted online, though police authorities are on the hunt for those responsible for sharing the movie.
Twentieth Century Fox is working alongside the FBI to try and learn who took the movie, which is scheduled to be released in the United States on May 1.
The movie, though incomplete, has spread quickly via peer-to-peer and torrent sites.
"The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law; the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts in the past," the movie studio said in a statement.
The file has been downloaded tens of thousands of times and will likely never be fully removed from the Internet.
The downloaded movie has missing and unedited scenes, missing special effects and some music tracks haven't been added to the movie. However, online movie reviewers said it is a better quality video than expected, and may actually be further along than Twentieth Century Fox wants to admit.
The studio is looking at digital watermarks and using other tools to try and find where the leak originated. The act of downloading and uploading the movie is frowned upon, but the FBI is only interested in prosecuting the people responsible for stealing and uploading the movie.
Leaked movies have plagued movie studios for years, and the problem still exists despite better physical security used by studios.
