The Recording Industry Association of America has sued 25 unidentified UCSD students, who are now among 405 students at 18 different university campuses charged with using an extremely fast academic network to illegally share music.

Filed on April 13, the legal complaints target users of the “i2hub” application, which relies on the advanced Internet2 technology used by approximately 200 universities. The network was originally designed for use in academic research and substantially accelerates file-transfer speeds. Many students believed that illegal file sharing was protected on the i2hub network because of the closed nature of the Internet2 environment.

“What we wanted to do is puncture that misconception and let people know that when they are on the Internet, there is no place for lawlessness,” RIAA President Cary Sherman said in an April 12 press conference. “With this action, we are putting students and users everywhere on notice that there are consequences to uses of this special network.”

Sherman said his colleagues at the Motion Picture Association of America would also pursue an unknown number of lawsuits against users of the network.

The so-called “John Doe” suits — which list only IP addresses of defendants — say that the students charged in the newest round of cases have shared an average of 2,300 music files each. The lawsuits target 18 schools across the country, including UC Berkeley, though Sherman said the industry association had evidence of i2hub use for copyright infringement at 450 campuses in 41 states. No more than 25 students have been charged at any one campus.

Use of hub technology has become popular on the next-generation network because it allows for downloads that are exponentially faster than peer-to-peer software designed for the regular Internet. For example, a song download through Internet2 takes fewer than 20 seconds, and a movie can be shared in less than five minutes.

A John Muir College freshman, who asked that his name not be used for fear of legal retaliation by the RIAA, said i2hub has become widely adopted because it requires students to use their official campus e-mails for registration, assuring that the general public — and RIAA officials — could not access it. The student, who shares more than 9,000 songs and was rated among the top-10 file sharers from UC campuses by the network, said he stopped using the application when its manufacturer moved to expand access to off-campus users who were willing to pay a fee.

“That completely opened the door for people to come in and see what’s going on,” he said.

Unlike other peer-to-peer software, students also use i2hub to share lecture notes and other school-related materials.

In a statement issued in response to a Guardian inquiry, the maker of the application denied that the software promoted illegal copyright violations.

“The i2hub organization does not condone activities and actions that breach the rights of copyright owners,” the organization stated in an e-mail. “Our companies are focused on bringing together students and connecting them in ways never before achieved. … Students across the globe utilize i2hub for many reasons: help on homework, exam reviews, sharing ideas and some have even found their significant other through the network.”

Sherman said that the RIAA had not sued the organization itself, though it was possible that its creators were among the 25 students sued at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where the network began. However, i2hub did not respond to questions about its role and cooperation in the suits.

Academic Computing Services Director Tony Wood said that information maintained by ResNet can link individual IP addresses to specific on-campus computers and their owners. Wood has said the university would be obligated to turn over that information to the recording industry if presented with formal subpoenas.

However, Wood said the university would not filter access to peer-to-peer services, as Sherman has urged campuses to do.

“While we don’t condone violation of copyright holders’ rights, we also don’t want to interfere with a technology that has many legitimate uses,” Wood stated in an e-mail. “Considering the short history of P2P, it is painfully obvious that any filtering will lead to additional evasive measures by the producers of P2P software. This is akin to the ‘war’ we are having with virus writers — new viruses evolve to bypass virus detection software. … Filtering will simply drive P2P ‘underground.’”

Student Legal Services Director C. Anthony Vallodolid said his staff has seen many worried students in recent days, some concerned over future suits and others who are already facing legal action. At this time, Vallodolid is planning to schedule a talk with a national intellectual property expert, who can provide advice for students.

“The logistics are such that it really might be cost-prohibitive for students to launch any sort of defense,” he said.

The Muir file sharer said he fears that he may be one of the students in the most recent wave of suits.

“It’s funny — I always say online when we have this debate that I’ll never quit until I get a subpoena on my doorstep,” he said. “This one might change my mind, if I get through it.”