UW to RIAA: Suck It

University of Washington is fighting the good fight. It makes me proud to have lived in Seattle for eight years. *Sniff*.

A pair of state universities in the Pacific Northwest have refused to pass RIAA prelitigation letters along to students over concerns that the IP addresses in the letters can’t easily be mapped to actual users of the computer in question. Just as interesting as the universities’ refusal, though, is the fact that the story is now drawing national attention.

The University of Washington is one of the latest schools on the receiving end of the RIAA letters. Such letters are typically shot off to school administrators along with requests that they be forwarded to the students associated with a listed IP address. The RIAA asserts that the IP addresses in question have be detected swapping illicit material over P2P networks, but colleges and universities have started to raise concerns about linking IP addresses to students. Even in student dorms rooms, it can be hard to know just who is using a computer at any given time.

• Some background on RIAA tactics
• Top 100 RIAA-free albums

How do you feel about this?