Veteran industry rag Variety reported last Tuesday that hackers have been able to grab studio rushes, scripts, memos and other data from the servers of a number of Hollywood's major studios.

The article concentrated on a 21-year-old computer security expert based in London. The Independent newspaper took up the hacker's trail with a startling interview with James Sinclair, the head of Global Network Security Services. Sinclair revealed simply, "Give me $10,000 and I can get you any movie being made in the next 12 months."

The interview revealed that the industry's ever increasing dependence on digital production, is leaving itself open to theft by hackers. Sinclair continued, "These [studios] all have these gaping holes. The fact is that unless you've secured everything along the way ... you're going to have another Napster all over again."

He stressed that theft of Hollywood's intellectual property is now not limited to sophisticated hackers, "It's so easy, and getting easier all the time. You can get there in three simple steps. The problem is, you've just become a felon dealing in copyrighted material."