Star Wars 7 Blu-ray Leaks Online

A pirated version of Star Wars Episode VII -- The Force Awakens has leaked online ahead of the sci-fi blockbuster's home video Blu-ray and DVD release early next month.

TorrentFreak reports today that the pirated version has emerged on "various pirate sites," and so far, has been downloaded "hundreds of thousands" of times. It is common for movies to leak in this way.

The first Force Awakens pirated copy showed up on March 22, TorrentFreak reported. Just 12 hours later, it had been downloaded a reported 250,000 times, with this number likely to balloon into the millions in the days and weeks to come.

According to TorrentFreak, the leak comes by way of a Blu-ray retail copy of the film that someone ripped and put online. Before this, lower-quality, camcorded versions of The Force Awakens were released on torrent sites. But this is the first time a high-quality version is available.

Disney and Lucasfilm have attempted to limit the piracy by deploying takedown requests to Google. This may have diminished the piracy somewhat, but the film is still widely available on torrent sites.

The Force Awakens officially comes to Blu-ray and DVD on April 5. Included with the home video release are a series of deleted scenes, which we recently got a closer look at.