Matt Dundas is the host of What-About Radio, a weekly news commentary radio show that runs every Monday at 5 p.m. on RainyDawg.org. Archived shows are available at whataboutradio.org.

Were you thinking about opening a Limewire account, or perhaps hoping to take a quick jaunt onto Grokster to check out the latest musical craze via the campus Internet network? If you live in campus housing, you might want to think again.

While you were off catching rays this summer, the University of Washington agreed to pass along letters of accusation from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to students who allegedly used their UW Internet connections to illegally download music. This is a needless abuse of power and abridgement of student privacy on the part of the UW.

We don't know how it's compiling its data or how it's targeting particular students. All we know is that the RIAA misses the days when the only way students could get quality music was to pay $18 for a piece of plastic, and they're out for blood. The UW administration, along with the faculty members and students who approved of this policy, is throwing them scrap meat, and that could mean you.

The RIAA offers two options in its letters of accusation, which they are in the process of sending out to alleged perpetrators: settle for as much as $5,000 within 20 days of notification or face off against its hired guns in court. The RIAA knows that most students don't have good access to or an understanding of the legal system. It's taking advantage of this fact to bully its targets into paying up front before they've been convicted of anything, waiving their legal right to trial. By forwarding the RIAA's letters, the UW is playing along with this scheme instead of helping defend its students or educating them about their legal options.

Those defending the decision claim that the UW could leave itself liable to the RIAA or even to the students under suspicion if it refused to comply. Perhaps, but there are no documented cases of this, and some schools are choosing to protect student privacy instead of cowering to an outside industry group.

The University of Wisconsin was contacted by the RIAA but refused to forward the letters, saying that it would "put the University in an uncomfortable and inappropriate alliance with the RIAA." Wisconsin instead favored educating their students about the legal hazards of inappropriate file sharing.Harvard University effectively deterred the RIAA from even approaching them, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School went so far as to publicly call on other universities to rebuff the RIAA in a 2007 report entitled, "Universities to RIAA: Take A Hike."

The perpetration in question is reflective of the death throes of an industry whose only recourse to save its profits is to sue its biggest customers. What's most offensive in this matter is that the targeted students no doubt believed that they were acting in the privacy and inviolability of their homes.

The days of being protected by our University are over. We're on our own now, left only to assume that everything we do is being monitored, if not by our government for purposes of "national security," then by anyone else who stands to gain from our demise.

My advice? Uninstall your music downloading programs and start supporting the artists you love in a way that doesn't put money into the RIAA's pockets — go to live shows.

In the meantime, use your Internet connection for something useful; learn more about these issues and others on my weekly news commentary and talk radio show, "What-About Radio," which airs Monday, 5 p.m. My first episode, airing October 1, will outline the many drawbacks of the UW's recent decision regarding illegal file-sharing on the campus network, and feature original interviews with a rock star, a legal expert, and ASUW President Tyler Dockins. Be sure to tune in.

[Reach columnist Matt Dundas at news@thedaily.washington.edu]