PIRATE DVDs of Oscar- nominated films are on sale at Glasgow’s Barras – before some are even on in UK cinemas.

Yesterday, five of the short-listed flicks were on sale for £3 or £5 each – cheaper than a cinema ticket.

And the pirates at the east end market bragged they would have the other four within days.

Some
of the films are not out in the UK yet. They included Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, which is up for four Oscars and not in UK cinemas until Friday.

Sunday Mail investigators also spotted the musical Les Miserable, nominated for eight Oscars.

It
was £5 or three for £10 just hours after its British release on Friday.
Also for sale was Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, nominated for 12 Academy Awards. Counterfeit copies of The Life of Pi, nominated for 11 awards, were selling well, as was Argo for just £3.

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said: “The sale of counterfeit goods is estimated to cost Scotland’s economy more than £10million a year.”

A Federation Against Copyright
Theft spokesman said: “The quality of these discs is extremely poor and
the money goes to organised crime in the city.”

The Oscar ceremony takes place on February 24.