And the pirate's booty goes to...

Oscartorrents is a BitTorrent based people's choice award for the Oscar nominees - it invites you to acquire the movies in question via peer to peer file sharing (complete with links to the torrents) and then vote on which films should win the big awards. As of this post, they've got all but 11 torrents for the nominees, all from those other catagories from in between the musical numbers. From the site:

On Oscars night, we'll post your results right along with the 'official' ones. Of course this is the way it should be done now that movie distribution is almost free. Hollywoodland might not like it, but some people always have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future.

So far there's no hint of a prize for the winners, which seems like an oversite to me. At least send them and eyepatch or a bottle of rum, guys. Maybe give them a wiki to post their acceptance speeches.

Oscartorrents is of course more intellectual property politics than film appreciation writ large:

OSCARTORRENTS®, and the OSCAR THE PIRATE® statuette design mark are the unregistered marks of no one in particular. No ©2007. Nothing to do with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences & ABC, Inc. All Rights Reversed. The Official Oscars is a sham produced by villiains in partnership with the cult of celebrity. By accessing this site you're probably comitting a felony somewhere -- but let your own idea of what is right and wrong be your guide.

But it would be fun to see an online resource for a massive people's choice awards. For instance, it could include all movies for the year, not just nominees. And a vote with a dollar in the tip jar, with the winner getting the pot, or some other gift from the fans.