Internet pirates have started making illegal versions of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens available on torrent sites. It seems not even the might of Disney and the police could stop this from happening.

There are many versions floating around at the moment, all of which are video camera recordings of theatre screens. The most popular one we could find currently has more than 15 000 seeders and 8 000 leechers. As a testament to the Star Wars’ popularity, there are more seeders than leechers; something which doesn’t happen too often. It seems even the pirates want more people to watch the movie.

As for the validity of the torrent; it is an English version of the movie that’s already been downloaded almost 100 000 times.

At this point we’d like to remind you that pirating of any kind is against the law both in this country and abroad, and you could face jail time if caught. This is why we’ve not linked to any of the torrenting sites nor will we point you in any direction to get this torrent itself.

If you want to know how serious Disney is about protecting this movie, when we went to watch the South African premier there were uniformed police officers were stationed at the door to make sure no one could record the movie.

If you want to know what all the fervour is about, read our spoiler-free review. To give away the summary: it’s definitely a movie that warrants a pricey theatre ticket.

We advise our readers not to turn to the Dark Side on this – you owe it to yourself to watch The Force Awakens on the biggest screen possible.