'12 Years A Slave' BitTorrent Downloading Surge: Oscar Winners See Spike In Illegal Downloads Following Academy Awards

It turns out that winning an Academy Award is as good for movie piracy as it is for sales.

Illegal downloads of “Gravity,” the most decorated film of the year with seven Oscars, have doubled on BitTorrent sites since the awards Sunday night. “12 Years A Slave,” which won the top Oscar for Best Picture, also earned an extra 100,000 BitTorrent downloads on Monday, tripling the amount of illegal downloads compared with before the award.

This is a common phenomenon for Oscar winners, and has sometimes prompted legal action from the movie studios. TorrentFreak pointed out that “The Hurt Locker” experienced a massive boost in BitTorrent downloads following the 2012 Academy Awards, leading Voltage Pictures to sue more than 24,000 BitTorrent users.

Studios argue that these bumps in downloading result in millions of dollars lost for the filmmakers.

Do you think the studios behind “Gravity” and “12 Year A Slave” should take legal action against BitTorrent downloaders? Let us know in the comments.