Internet pirates are reportedly being targeted by the FBI after reports that the new Star Wars film is available on the web.

With the international release date of the film still more than a month away, copies have been freely available for downloading on the Internet and the production company Lucasfilm is investigating where the leak could have come from.

The news follows the revelation by the Evening Press that a group of York students apparently saw the new film, Episode One: The Phantom Menace, in its entirety on the Internet.

One student said he was impressed by the clarity of the picture and was sure it was the genuine article.

"I watched it with a group of friends last night after someone told me it was being shown in someone's room," he said.

"It was cinema quality and as far as I could tell it was the whole movie from beginning to end."

But a national broadsheet today reported that today George Lucas, creator of the films, has joined forces with the FBI to declare war on the Internet pirates who are in the position to cheat the production company Lucasfilm out of millions of dollars.

It is thought a full-length copy of the two hour film can be downloaded within 20 minutes by an Internet user with the latest high-speed software.

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