SYDNEY — There's a lot of talk in Australia about the high number of pirates hanging out on our shores. Earlier this year, Australia had the highest number of illegal downloads of Game of Thrones season four. The government was not impressed.

In response to the high rate of piracy, the Australian government started to look at ways to crackdown on copyright infringement of music, films and television shows downloaded from the internet.

See also: Proposed Spy Laws Raise Deep Concerns in Australia

On Friday, a draft discussion paper titled "Online Copyright Infringement Discussion Paper”, leaked by technology website Crikey, shows the government is looking into legal options which would see Australia have some of the toughest anti-piracy laws in the world.

The leaked paper clearly states the main reasons Australians download content illegally in such high numbers — cost and availability — yet it does not address these underlying consumer issues, instead focussing on the need for internet service providers to enforce the law.

“There are a number of factors that contribute to online copyright infringement in Australia. These factors include the availability and affordability of lawful content, the case with which consumers can access unlawful material and consumer awareness of legitimate services,” the discussion paper said.

The paper discusses the role of the internet service providers (ISPs) to place restrictions — such as slower internet speeds or blockages — on users who are accessing illegal content or for rights holders to take legal action against ISPs if they are allowing access to pirated content.

In the case of international websites, such as torrent site The Pirate Bay, ISPs could be forced by court injunctions to block access to the site entirely.

The draft paper stated: "The Copyright Act would be amended to enable rights holders to apply to a court for an order against ISPs to block access to an internet site operating outside Australia, the dominant purpose of which is to infringe copyright."

Rights holders could also force multiple ISPs to block sites in one court injunction, which the government believes would stop consumers from switching ISPs to avoid the content block.

“Such a power would clarify that a rights-holder may list a number of ISPs as respondents to an application for injunctive relief. This would reduce the opportunity for people to ‘evade’ the operation of such orders by switching ISPs," the government said.

The options outlined in the discussion paper have been labelled by experts as overly harsh compared to international standards and as not addressing the highlighted problem of Australian consumers being unable to access content legally when it is available in other markets.

Intellectual property expert and associate professor at the Australian National University, Dr. Matthew Rimmer, told Mashable the ideas outlined in the discussion paper are "radical" and a "victory for old copyright dinosaurs."

"Australia is flirting with these zombie ideas and policy options that have been discredited elsewhere," he said.

Rimmer said it was clear the bill could have large-ranging impacts on a free and open internet by giving power to copyright holders over consumers.

"Brandis is pushing for a prison house in terms of a copyright regime that would lock down the internet in a range of ways," he said. "[Copyright owners] could use and abuse such power by filtering and blocking the internet."

Rimmer also believed there is a "clear synergy between the government and copyright owners" while nothing is being done to assist consumers.

"The recent IT Pricing Inquiry revealed copyright owners were ripping off Australian users, and not giving access to affordable content in a timely fashion," he said. "Old legacy copyright industries seem to be valued above the new players from the new economy."

Monash University senior lecturer Rebecca Giblin told Fairfax Media these moves would not fix the issues of Australians who want to download content legally.

"As well as raising serious concerns about privacy, transparency and due process, any such deals are unlikely to fix the underlying problems that cause infringement. A few ISPs have entered into similar deals in other countries, but nowhere else have they been forced to do so by this kind of threat of liability," she said.

Google made it clear in a letter to the government leaked on TorrentFreak the company does not support increased regulation in the Australian market.

“We believe there is significant, credible evidence emerging that online piracy is primarily an availability and pricing problem. We would encourage the Government to promote new business models and a free marketplace for legal purchasing of content,” Google wrote in the letter.

“We would be disappointed if the Government decided to go down the route of overly harsh regulation to combat piracy without considering the evidence from around the world that this would likely be costly for businesses to implement and with little effect.”

A scene from US show Orange is the New Black.

The discussion paper and the targeting of ISPs has been praised by film production company Village Roadshow and Pay TV service Foxtel.

"[I] applaud the fact that the government is making people like iiNet (Australian ISP) responsible," Village Roadshow co-chief Graham Burke told Fairfax Media on Friday.

Zdnet revealed in February, lobby group Australian Screens Association, that represent film companies including Village Roadshow, had donated close to $AUD4 million to the Labor and Liberal governments. Last year, Village Roadshow alone donated $AUD315,004 to the Liberal government.

“While we are not in a position to comment on specifics until we have seen the official version of the paper, we welcome the fact that the government clearly recognises the importance of the creative industries to the economy and society and that they deserve to be appropriately rewarded for their efforts,” a Foxtel spokesperson said.

The company who charges a premium rate for their subscription service added: “As far as availability goes, Australia has an abundance of legal means to watch, listen to and play great content in a flexible manner."

Attorney-General George Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull are set to release the paper next week for public discussion with submissions closing on August 25.

Comment has been requested from Senator George Brandis and Australian Screens Association.