James Bond captured by pirates

The latest film in the British spy series is already circulating on the Internet and on illegal DVDs available on the streets of London.

The movie premiered in London on November 14 and went on general release in some countries the following day.

A first version was freely available online on November 17, which apparently came from Russia, was filmed on a camcorder over the heads of a cinema audience and had poor quality sound.

"In the face of this international conspiracy, Bond is really up against it," said David Price, Envisional's head of piracy intelligence.

"There are now several million active digital pirates. Many of them are ordinary families that have got into the habit of downloading the latest episodes of American television hits."

"And they don't have any qualms about using file sharing networks to copy new movies without paying."