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Under the new legislation, reported in The Times, internet service providers will be legally required to take action against those downloading pirated materials. The new law will apparently work on a three strikes basis, with a first offence receiving a warning, a second offence a temporary ban, and a third resulting in a terminated internet contract.

Apparently the government is also considering whether this information should be shared among the ISPs, which could effectively see certain users striken from the internet.

The article goes on to claim that ISPs that fail to follow the guidelines will themselves be prosecuted.

However, a number of sticking points remain in

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the scheme including the issue of who will be responsible for arbitrating disputed cases, for example, in cases of Wi-Fi piggybacking.

The government has previously claimed that should ISPs not self regulate on the issue it would be willing to step in and take action, however, this is the first time details of a potential scheme have been released.

Speaking on the issue in the past ISPs have argued that they simply do not have the ability to track every file that passes along their network, while privacy advocates have slammed proposals to monitor internet traffic.

The Department for Media Culture and Sport was not available for comment at the time of writing.

The idea of cutting-off file-sharers was mooted by the director general of the Federation Against Software Theft, John Lovelock, in an exclusive interview with PC Pro back in October. Click here to find out what else he had to say on the issue.