Australians who illegally downloaded the 2013 movie Dallas Buyers Club are unlikely to receive a large fine as it will "not solve the problem" of piracy, an Intellectual Property (IP) Lawyer said.

Peter Banki, an IP Lawyer at Banki Haddock Fiora Lawyers, said the case was about educating the public on what was permitted under copyright law not threatening them.

The Federal Court ruled on Tuesday that a group of internet service providers (ISPs) must hand over contact details of Australians accused of illegally downloading the movie Dallas Buyers Club.

The film's owners warned thousands of Australians could expect settlement letters following the landmark court ruling.

"They should not be alarmed. They should not be overly concerned about it," Mr Banki said.

"First of all because we don't know what the letter says yet and I think it's going to be most unlikely that it will be a threatening letter.

"And secondly because if they're simply copying instead of buying an authorised copy but they're not involved in large scale or commercial activities, then I think they've got very little to fear from reasonable copyright owners," he said.

Internet Piracy Fact Box 71 per cent adult web pirates would stop if given letter by ISP for illegal downloading

71 per cent adult web pirates would stop if given letter by ISP for illegal downloading 29 per cent of people aged 18-64 have illegally downloaded movies and TV shows

29 per cent of people aged 18-64 have illegally downloaded movies and TV shows 26 per cent of people aged 12-17 were illegally downloading movies and shows once a week

26 per cent of people aged 12-17 were illegally downloading movies and shows once a week 54 per cent of people aged 18-24 were illegally downloading regularly

54 per cent of people aged 18-24 were illegally downloading regularly 18-24-year-olds believed it was OK because there were no measures to stop it

18-24-year-olds believed it was OK because there were no measures to stop it 25-35-year-olds the most frequent users of illegal downloading IP Awareness Foundation Research June 2013-2014

In the US, lawyers for the movie's owner's have reportedly been lining up names and IP addresses of people who illegally downloaded the movie and filing suit against them, citing a 1976 statute that allows for a fine of up to $US150,000.

According to reports the defendants have usually settled out of court for about $5,000, occasionally more.

Mr Banki said that was unlikely to happen in Australia.

"It's most unlikely that will happen and even if it does get to that point there are several steps in between. The judge has made it clear that he wants to see the correspondence that goes to the punter.

"And I think ... that the judge recognises threatening letters and fines are not going to solve the problem."

Mr Banki said generally speaking, copyright owners want to educate the public about what is permitted under the copyright law.

"They're not about threatening members of the public. So I suppose this is one way of drawing attention to an ongoing problem," he said.

Communications Alliance CEO, John Stanton said he doubted the judge would let the rights holder make an outrageous demand.

"I think that damages in Australia are typically compensatory not punitive and I suspect that they'll want there to be some relationship between financial demand and the actual revenue forgone because of the illegal downloading," he said.

"So I don't think it's likely we'll see the customers being forced to pay enormous amounts of money in the way that's happened in other markets like the UK and the USA."

Three-strikes code approach to anti-piracy

This comes as industry body, the Communications Alliance, submitted a new code of practice to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which would introduce a three-strikes approach to combat online piracy.

The Copyright Notice Scheme Code 2015, is the product of an intensive process by ISPs, consumer representatives and a broad alliance of rights holders from the music, film, television and performing arts industries.

Mr Stanton praised the dedication and cooperative spirit of rights holders, ISPs and consumer representatives who developed the Code in record time.

"The consumer if they are alleged to have participated in online copyright infringement, evidence by an allegation by the rights holder, will receive a notice from their ISP, informing them that the allegation's been made, giving them educational material about where to access legal content, and warning them that if they keep infringing that could lead to further action," he said.

"There's no sanctions, there's no throttling of internet speeds, there's no disconnection of customers, the ISP sector was quite firm on the fact that it wasn't willing to take those kind of policeman roles on behalf of Hollywood and other rights holders – it's more a three notices and you're at risk of potential further action."

Mr Stanton said he hoped people would not get three notices and that they would realise by receiving one that their actions were detectable and potentially illegal, leading them to change behaviour.

"That has to be married of course with a continued push to give consumer's affordable legal content alternatives.

"In the past people in Australia have been tempted to illegally download because they've been unable to get the content when they want it or at the price they want it."