It's been revealed in a leaked government green paper that people in the UK who use their internet connection to download pirated copyrighted material could have their internet access cut off. The draft consultation suggests it will be the Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") who are required to take action in the fight against online piracy.

It's estimated that six million people a year download files illegally in the UK with music and film companies claiming to lose millions in lost revenues. The leaked proposals point towards the implementation of a "three strikes" policy. Users suspected of illegally downloading copyrighted material will receive a warning email for their first offence, a temporary suspension from their internet connection for the second with their ISP contract terminated for a third offence.

According to the Times newspaper, who first reported the government proposals, broadband firms failing to enforce the rules could be prosecuted with the details of customers suspected of illegal downloading made available for legal action. According to the Times, the draft paper states: "We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file sharing".

Of course, these proposals will not come as a surprise for many. The same solution to the problem was adopted in principle by the French in November last year with offenders there also being given a three strikes and you're out policy. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Paris on Friday 23 November by more than 40 signatories including music content providers, audiovisual content providers, ISPs and public authorities. Under the terms of that agreement, ISPs committed to experimenting with technologies to filter out infringing content. At the time it was noted by many that pressure would build on our government to take a similar stance and in turn lean on the ISPs.

In any event, the ISPs themselves must have seen such a move coming. As well as A T & T recently acknowledging at CES that they are looking into filtering technology, companies such as BT, Virgin and Tiscali have already been in talks with representatives from the entertainment industry regarding the introduction of a voluntary scheme for policing their networks, though no agreement was reached. Predictably however, they have not welcomed the latest proposals. The Internet Service Providers Association was reported as saying that data protection laws would prevent ISPs looking at the content of information sent over their networks, and that "ISPs are no more able to inspect and filter every single packet passing across their network than the Post Office is able to open every envelope". Another argument against the proposals is that "ISPs bear no liability for illegal file sharing as the content is not hosted on their servers".

Critics have warned that the system could prove complicated if customers were to claim that they were not responsible and that a third party had been using their connection. There are also issues as to knowing who was using a computer at a certain time to download such material. This touches on the recent debate sparked by Peter Scharr's (the EU's head data privacy regulator) who stated that IP addresses should generally be regarded as personal information.

Not everyone is negative however. Geoff Taylor, the chief executive of the BPI welcomed the proposals stating that "For years, ISPs have built a business on other people's music. Yet they have paid nothing to the creators of that music, and done little or nothing to address illegal downloading via their networks".

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport stated: "Early drafts of our creative economy programme documents were circulated to stakeholders for comment. The content and proposals for the strategy have been significantly developed since then and a comprehensive plan to bolster the UK's creative industries will be published shortly".