Even before the big night, DVD screeners intended for Oscar voters were popping up all over file-sharing networks. In fact, detailed piracy statistics exist for every Oscar-nominated movie since 2003. The movie industry is still looking for the right technology to win this battle.

The 60^th Oscars have just aired. Like any other year, the movie industry had gone to great lengths to prevent nominated movies from leaking to the Internet. And like any other year, it has failed. The Internet site, waxy.org, has compiled six years of piracy data on all 186 nominated films from 2003 to 2008 - including when a movie was leaked via camcording, telesync, Region5/Telecine, DVD Screener formats. This year, all but six of the 34 nominated films were available in DVD quality by the last week of January.

According to an analysis of this data in TorrentFreak, the stats show that the average length of time before a movie leaked to the Internet (in any format, including ‘cam’) was just a single day in 2003, extending to a peak of 7 days in 2006. By 2008 the term was back to 4 days and over the 2003-2008 period, the average internet leak time was just 3 days.

The most telling figures – of the 186 nominated movies from 2003 to 2008, a massive 182 of these leaked to the internet in some way (from ‘cams’ upwards) and 143 were leaks of “Screener” copies, often leaked to uploaders by industry insiders.

Pirated movies usually come in these release formats, from the simplest to the most complex:

Cam refers to a copy made in a cinema using a camcorder, possibly mounted on a tripod, with quality ranging from terrible to very good. The sound source is the camera microphone, which also picks up the background sounds in the cinema. Cam rips can quickly appear online after the first preview or première of the film.

Telesync is a video copy of the movie which was shot in a cinema, often with a professional camera on a tripod in the projection booth, with a direct connection to the sound source. Along with DVD-Rip, it is a common form of bootlegged movie, usually one that will be released a few days after the first cam versions.

Telecine  is the process of transferring motion picture film into electronic form. The term is also used to refer to the equipment used in the process. Telecine enables a motion picture, captured originally on film, to be viewed with standard video equipment, such as televisions, video cassette decks or computers.

R5 is a retail DVD from region 5. Region 5 consists of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Indian subcontinent, Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia. R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing. They take the information from the DVD disc and sync it to an English version of the film, usually a previously released version, which means that the sound often isn't as good as DVDRips.

Screeners are early DVD or VHS releases of the theatrical version of a film, typically sent to movie reviewers, Academy members, and executives for review purposes. Aside from a message overlaid on its picture, asking you to contact an 800 number if you purchased it in a retail store, screeners are normally of only slightly lower quality than a retail DVD-Rip, due to the smaller investment in DVD mastering for the limited run.

DVD Rips is a final retail version of a film, typically released before it is available outside its originating region. Often, after one "release group" releases a high-quality DVD-Rip, the "race" to release that film will stop. Because of their high quality, DVD-Rips generally replace any earlier copies that may already have been circulating.

The movie industry has been attempting to combat movie piracy. Six major studios came together to establish Movie Labs to come up with breakthrough innovations that can help the distribution of film. But as of now, it is still exploring and testing content recognition technologies.

Piracy is fueled by the same new technologies that can revolutionize the future of creative content. The movie industry just has to find a way to make technology work for, instead of against, the movies.