You know what I did today? I downloaded Slumdog Millionaire. Since it’s already Oscar front-runner, I figured owning it now will save me having to peel the “Winner: Best Picture” sticker from the eventual DVD case.

For those familiar with the Torrenting world and other high seas of internet pirates, the availability of 24 of the 26 nominated films online is probably no surprise. Especially since 20 of the nominated films were distributed to Academy members as screeners, and there is an average time of 6 days from screener release until DVD-quailty torrents pop up online.

Another interesting change from years previous: there were fewer camcorder leaks of the nominated films, suggesting either that theaters’ stricter “no cameras” policy is working or that the average movie goer/pirate doesn’t want to fully sacrifice the medium just to stick it to the man.

The data is surprising when three things are kept in mind: 1) these are Academy Award nominated films, therefore certain quality of product is expected. 2) the popular films exist in DVD rips, so picture quality is still valued by pirates. 3) Academy screeners show up online, so this is movie lovers sharing with everyone, free of cost.

Luckily Waxy.org is onboard to track it for us…

From Waxy:

As usual, I included the feature films in every category except documentary and foreign films. I used Yahoo! Movies for US release dates, always using the first available date, even if it was a limited release. Cam, telesync, R5, and screener leak dates were almost universally taken from VCD Quality. I used the first leak date, with the exception of unviewable or incomplete nuked releases. Finally, the official screener dates came from Academy member Ken Rudolph, who lists the date he receives every screener on his personal homepage.

Check out the full, rolling updated report HERE.