People who illegally download music or films may have their internet access cut off under a new plan drawn up by the government in the UK.

A new Green Paper says that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) should be required to take action against those who use the internet to acquire pirated material.

Users would first be sent an email warning them followed by a suspension if they carry on and finally the termination of their contract under the ‘three strikes’ rule.

The paper is due to be published next week but have been reported by the Times who say that ISPs who fail to enforce the rules could be prosecuted.

The consultation documentation reportedly says: "We will move to legislate to require internet service providers to take action on illegal file sharing."

A spokesman for A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: "Early drafts of our creative economy programme document 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.

"We will not comment on the content of the leaked document."

An estimated six million people are year download files illegally in the UK while music and film companies say they are losing millions as a result.

According to the BBC ISPs such as Virgin, Tiscali and BT have already been in talks with the entertainment industry about introducing a voluntary piracy policing scheme.

However, several stumbling blocks exist including the fact that ISPs claim that people are “piggybacking” their service in order to download files.