Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/06/02/times_world_exclusive_reveals_amazing/

Times' World exclusive reveals amazing new software

... or maybe they just got the numbers wrong

By Pete Sherriff

Posted in On-Prem, 2nd June 1999 12:54 GMT

Today's London Times reports that the force appears to have deserted millionaire film maker George Lucas. Full-length pirate copies of the latest Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace, are reputedly available for download on the Web, weeks before the film's UK launch. But the real story is hidden deep within the piece –- apparently users can download the entire two-hour film "in just 20 minutes" by means of "the latest high-speed software." A rough estimate shows that a file containing a high resolution movie of this length would have even more digits in it than Bill Gates' bank balance and, if printed out, would produce a pile of paper stretching to the Death Star and back. Perhaps the Times' Adam Sherwin would care to share with the rest of us just how we can get hold of this wondrous software. ®