In January, online piracy was a topic of national discussion after the federal government proposed the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, causing multiple websites, including Wikipedia, to go black in protest. Then, days later, the video streaming website MegaUpload was shut down by federal officers in a high profile raid. But, according to Google, these efforts may have been in vain.

After commissioning an investigation into online piracy trends, a policy manager for the company's U.K. branch has determined that blocking and shutting down piracy websites isn't the best way to stop copyright infringement. Instead, Theo Bertram suggests that government agencies target the payment processors and advertisers who keep file sharing websites in business.

According to the report, most of the ads on websites known with pirated content come from agencies that are not registered with any regulatory body in the U.K. Bertram argues that the government and above-board advertisers should team up and encourage these businesses to submit to an industry-wide code of conduct.

The report also showed that two thirds of subscription-based piracy websites processed payments through major credit card companies. In that case, a coalition of advertisers, payment processors and rights holders could cut off the pirates' profits by appealing directly to the businesses that transfer their funds.

Bertram also noted that, while illegal video streaming websites make up for one third of online copyright infringement, sites hawking illegal music are on the decline. The policy manager attributes this trend to the popularity of music providers like iTunes and Spotify, which make purchasing music online easy.

Although users across the country can access video content on Hulu and Netflix via their Apple Macbook Airs and Toshiba laptops, it may take extra intervention to stop them from downloading torrents too.

Speak to an informed retailer at PortableOne for more information on the best devices availabe for streaming video.