Grand Theft Auto 3 earns the 'distinction' of being the most pirated game on Android

The issue of online piracy continues to cause unrest, threatening both the wallets of media moguls and the sanctity of the internet itself.

Wednesday's protests against the proposed SOPA legislation - during which huge sites like Wikipedia and Reddit blacked out their homepages - were immediately followed by police swooping on file-sharing site Megaupload and subsequently taking it offline.

Although the media's focus is usually on the widespread illegal sharing of films and music, evidence suggests mobile games are becoming more and more susceptible to piracy, too.

It seems as though Google's notoriously permissive attitude towards the publishing of Android applications on its Market makes uploading stolen games easier than on Apple’s more strictly controlled iOS platform.

This has prompted a host of pirates to post torrents of Android games on prominent file-sharing sites like The Pirate Bay.

Curious to see which Android apps were the most popular targets of online piracy, the folks over at ElectricPig had a look at the 'most seeded' charts on popular torrenting sites The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, and Kickass Torrents.

The results are generally unsurprising. Earning the dubious honour of being the most pirated game on Android (based on the number of seeders) is Rockstar's mobile port of Grand Theft Auto III.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit also appeared in the top five most seeded torrents, alongside fellow EA property FIFA 12. PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 followed closely behind.

Interestingly, pricey UI customisation app SPB Shell 3D shows up on two of the lists, proving that free pirated apps are just as desirable as free pirated games.