The fight against illegal music downloading is a decade old, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is now pushing for anti-virus technology services to include a scan that checks for files that have not been obtained legally. In the news piece I read on this development, the writer mentioned that the major issue this idea has is whether tracks have the Digital Rights Management tags that identify "legal" tracks. That means every CD in your collection that you ripped into a music player on your computer would be deemed illegal and the RIAA might take action against you. Additionally, some record labels have stopped using DRM technology, meaning this prospect faces another problem since that tag won't be present in tracks.

Having anti-virus scans, or any program search your computer for illegal files is terrifying and breaks privacy barriers. In fact, the description of the idea sounds illegal in my limited knowledge of privacy laws and the Constitution. I've continually questioned positions like this, either with the RIAA, the record labels, or whoever actually owns the music that consumers buy. Obviously it is a very delicate discussion and not one that has a simple answer, despite general assumptions that the record labels or the artists own the music.

Grappling with ideas like this and positions that trade groups like the RIAA takes against its own consumers is often confusing for me as well. This might not be as obvious, but as a consumer ideas like this, or rumors about ideas such as this, really force me to think about what kind of future this trade groups have if true motives eventually lead to having no faith in the public. An anti-piracy scan that does not differentiate between legal or "illegal", no DRM and ripped files, and various other legal differences that do exist, indicates that the RIAA is grasping at straws. Although this idea will likely be balked at and never see the light of day (I hope), the very idea makes you wonder what real ideas are on the horizon beyond the continuous lawsuits the RIAA will undoubtedly file.