Forget about peer-to-peer torrents, file sharing networks, and download sites.  They are so yesterday.  Newsgroups?  That’s so last month.  No, today’s targets of Hollywood’s copyright cops are online video streaming sites that make watching pirated movies and television shows simple.  So simple, many viewers may not even realize they are watching illicitly.

At issue are video streaming sites that take uploaded video files and use them as part of one-click streaming entertainment portals.

Websites like Megavideo deliver thousands of shows and movies to viewers who want to watch online.  These sites bypass video “pay-walls” that limit viewing thanks to an army of volunteers who capture copies of programming and then upload them to file storage sites.  Previously, those who wanted to watch had to download multi-part files and use software to put the pieces back together.  With online streaming of that content, it’s as easy as watching Hulu.

The Los Angeles Times lifted the lid on the world of underground online viewing in a piece that sounds the alarm for the next generation of video piracy:

Streaming video is the most visible sign of how Internet piracy has evolved since the days of Napster and its imitators. The new digital black market combines “cyberlockers,” such as Megaupload and Hotfile, which piracy experts say hold stores of pilfered content, with linking sites such as TVDuck and TVShack.cc, which act like an underground version of TV Guide, helping people locate bootlegged TV shows and movies. Some of these linking sites even contain reviews and recommendations that lend a patina of legitimacy.

[…]File-sharing remains the primary source for pirated digital copies of songs, movies, TV episodes and video games. But use has stagnated as media companies have enjoyed greater success in crippling or shutting down popular sites such as Mininova and Isohunt, said Eric Garland, chief executive of BigChampagne, a media tracking firm. Streaming and downloading from so-called cyberlockers are on track to surpass peer-to-peer use by 2013, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America, Hollywood’s lobbying arm.

[…]The fear is nonetheless palpable throughout the entertainment industry. Executives worry that improvements in Internet speeds and in the software that compresses movie files into easy-to-distribute packages are making matters worse.

“It’s made streaming a lot less clunky than it was even three years ago,” said Darcy Antonellis, president of Warner Bros. Technical Operations.

[…]To strengthen the government’s hand against online piracy, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and senior Republican member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Monday introduced a bill that would give the Justice Department more tools to track and shut down websites devoted to providing access to unauthorized downloads, streaming and sale of copyrighted content.