TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese companies plan to cut off the Internet connection of anyone who illegally downloads files in one of the world's toughest measures against online piracy, a report said Saturday.

"Faced with mounting complaints from the music, movie and video-game industries, four associations representing Japan's Internet service providers have agreed to take drastic action, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said service providers would send e-mails to people who repeatedly made illegal copies and terminate their connections if they did not stop.

The Internet companies will set up a panel next month involving groups representing copyright holders to draft the new guidelines, the report said.

Company and government officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the report Saturday.

The actions would be among the strictest in fighting online piracy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy  late last year outlined similar measures to disconnect Internet users who flagrantly violated copyright laws.

But for the most part, illegal downloading is being addressed through litigation against individuals.

The music industry won a first-of-a-kind victory in a US court in October when a single mother in Minnesota was ordered to pay more than 220,000 dollars for sharing 24 songs online.

The Yomiuri Shimbun estimated that 1.75 million people in Japan use file-sharing software, mostly to swap illegal copies.

One Internet service provider considered two years ago a plan to disconnect people who swap illegal files but dropped the plan after the government said it may violate the right to privacy, the Yomiuri said.

The best-known Japanese file-sharing software is called Winny, which allows users to swap games, movies and music online. It was developed by Isamu Kaneko, a young research assistant at the prestigious University of Tokyo who has become an Internet icon.

But in 2006 he was fined 1.5 million yen (15,000 dollars), although he was spared jail."

Japan to strip Internet for illegal downloaders - Yahoo

The first step for a strong counter-measure that will reduce piracy heavily. France and UK could be the next ones to take action:

If you P2P in France: No Internet for you

Illegal downloaders 'face UK ban'

Well done Japan. Lets hope otehr countries follow suit. Illegal downloading is plain wrong people.

they were going to do this in australia but i havent heared anything in ages so hopefully it doesnt happen but then again hope it does bcoz if music artist and movie studios stop making money because people will jsut download it they will stop doing it not so much the movie studios because they make millions from cinemas

>But in 2006 he was fined 1.5 million yen (15,000 dollars), although he was spared jail."

wouldn't that be like fining the person who invented mail because people are using it to send illegal stuff?

Personally I think the ISP cares NOTHING about illegal copies of anything, all they want is people to NOT use that much bandwidth.

Well... looks like people in japan will just have to steal other peoples wirelss conections to do their illegal downloads.

Seriously, why don't companies thing about these things.  I mean i know people in suburbs who can ride a bus downtown and get an uninterrupted wireless internet signal.