The FBI has tracked down two individuals who uploaded Oscar screeners to BitTorrent trackers. The pair are accused of uploading screeners of Australia, Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire to The Pirate Bay, Demonoid and Movie Hogs. They face harsh punishment of three years in jail.
Yesterday saw the announcement of the 2009 Oscar nominees. This year there were 26 movies put forward, and by nomination day, 23 of them were already being shared online in DVD quality, many of them copies of voter’s DVD Screeners.
It happens almost every year, a few hours after the Oscar winners are announced, people fire up their BitTorrent clients. The day after the award show is traditionally “Oscar winner download day”, as people are desperately trying to find that Oscar winning movie they haven’t seen yet.
When the Oscars roll round every year, the movie industry goes to great lengths to stop nominated movies leaking to the Internet. Every year they fail, miserably. Here is a comprehensive list of piracy stats for all Oscars movies since 2003, from camcorder copies right up to DVD Screeners.
A man who obtained a DVD Screener movie from his sister – an active Oscars voter – and uploaded it onto the internet has been charged with criminal copyright infringement and is facing the prospect of 3 years in jail.
last night the Oscar winners were announced
