Ironically the rival school to University of Washington, Washington State University, has been receiving these sorts of letters from the RIAA for some time and does nearly the exact opposite. Whenever the IT department receives a letter, they call the student in to the IT department to have their computer 'scanned' which basically means they go through and delete any .mp3 .avi .mpg or otherwise(and I hear they go to great lengths to recover data that might have been deleted prior to the student taking it in), then tell the RIAA that the issue has been taken care of and if they wish to pursue the matter further to contact WSU's lawyers. So the alternative would seem to have an evil side as well. Since the moment you plug your computer into the university network you have agreed to have not only your computer searched at the universities discretion but also to have your files deleted at the universities discretion.