Responding to widespread speculation that Warner Bros. engineered the leak of footage from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 as a sort of extended teaser for the movie, studio sources called the theory "absurd."

CNN.com wondered aloud if this week's leak would be good for the movie, and other news sites said the high quality of the watermarked source material suggests the leaker had close proximity to the Potter production's inner circle.

"Since it's a screener, my best guess would be an industry insider," TorrentFreak founder/editor Ernesto Van der Sar told Wired.com in an e-mail. "Despite [the Motion Picture Association of America]'s million-dollar antipiracy efforts, nearly all leaked screeners are made available by people from within the industry."

News site paidContent headlined its story on the leak "Harry Potter Leak Seems More Like Publicity Than Piracy," and suggested that Warner Bros. should check with its marketing department.

"Given the timing of the piracy and the duration of footage in this instance, it’s not the craziest notion," said paidContent. "Releasing 36 minutes rather than the whole movie is a way of whetting appetites without satisfying them entirely – for that you’ll need to fork over at least $10 in theaters. And with just 48 hours until Potter starts unspooling, it’s just the kind of pre-release jolt that would have been ineffective as a marketing tool were it advanced far earlier."

But studio execs called such conspiracy theories hogwash.

"This was not leaked by the studio," Warner Bros. spokesman Paul McGuire emphasized. "Harry Potter is the most successful franchise in film history."

An executive at 20th Century Fox, which was stung by the early release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine last year, said anybody that thinks a studio would gamble with a high-profile movie is nuts. "I couldn't think of anything more absurd," Fox's Chris Aronson told E Online.

Warner Bros. stood by its earlier vow to prosecute the leaker, even though CNET reported that the studio has not reported the leak to the FBI.

Motion Picture Association of America spokesman Craig Hoffman said the lobbying group, which represents Hollywood studios in Washington, D.C., had "no comment" on the case, although MPAA President Bob Pisano had plenty of comments Tuesday when he came out swinging with an opinion piece in The Hill slamming websites that host leaked material.

Calling for passage of the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, Pisano wrote: "Livelihoods are endangered by the rapid growth in rogue and unlawful internet sites. Rogue websites threaten the heart of our industry and the livelihoods of the people who give it life. These sites do not represent a problem that lies on the far horizon."

Even before this week's Deathly Hallows leak, anticipation for the new Potter movie was approaching historic proportions.

According to MovieTickets.com, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is the fifth-biggest generator of advance ticket sales in history, with 1,000 sellouts nationwide and 94 percent of this weekend's early receipts.

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