`The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey` falls victim to video piracy

Wellington: ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,’ which cost an estimated 663 million dollars to make and has been dubbed the most expensive movie ever produced, was put up for free and illegal, download by a website.

The website offered 230 versions of Peter Jackson’s movie on the net on Saturday, Stuff.co.nz reported. One user uploaded two versions of ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ and by Saturday, downloads of the film from the person’s account had topped 180,000. The uploader wrote that they had spent time trying to rid the supplied clip of a series of watermarks, which were added to preview copies in a bid to reduce the risk of piracy. Some of the watermarks were numbers, but others included code which appeared randomly on screen in 20 spots, which were difficult to spot if not looking for. ANI