"Rovi Corp. (ROVI) is the king of interactive program guides; most service providers license their content from the company, and advertisers are increasingly finding that they can piggyback on its IPGs to target consumers," says Timothy Lutts.

The editor of Cabot Stock of the Month adds, "It's also the king of anti-piracy, with its technology included in most DVD players, DVRs, set-top boxes and TVs.

"Rovi began life as Macrovision in 1983, focusing on copy-protection technologies to movies. No one else comes close.

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.

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) is reportedly aiming to move the music industry right into the anti-piracy technology-free era itself, threatening several label companies that the retail giant will pull their antiquated files from walmart.com if they do not upgrade. Billboard also reported that Wal-Mart's 2% share in the digital store arena may not say much, at least in comparison with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store, but the chain's CD sales account for a lot of business in the music industry (Billboard estimates 22%).

That large CD sales market for Wal-Mart is big incentive to see the growth of the music industry in the digital market. As CD sales decline, some have speculated that Wal-Mart may begin to re-size the entertainment department in stores, essentially pushing the market online for consumers. Another interest Billboard notes Wal-Mart may have in the "all-encompassing digital format" is the run against iTunes the company and other digital stores could make, like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)'s MP3 store. iTunes dominates the digital market, holding 70% of all sales.

It hardly seems "fair" to the record labels and the music industry for retain giants and digital stores to be forcing the change. If these growths and rumors tell us anything, it is that retail chains and digital stores are more attuned to what consumers want than the music industry. This is not a big revelation, but Apple alone has not spearheaded an industry-wide shift away from anti-piracy technology. Apple, Wal-Mart, and Amazon, may not be working together to increase the availability of music, but it appears they have the same goals. They just want sales, and apparently consumers just want easy to access music.

Now that Microsoft expanded its anti-piracy efforts to include Office as well as Windows, it's also made public that a user may be able to get a free replacement copy of its Office applications.  To get the free copy the user must be able to prove that he or she bought the product without intending to buy a counterfeit copy. 

A spokesperson for Microsoft told Information Week that to get a free copy the user must, "submit proof of purchase, the counterfeit CD, and a counterfeit report with details of their purchase."

Windows users have been subject to the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy software since July 2005.  Now when they try to download updates of the software, except for Security updates, WGA checks for authenticity.

Initially Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) will be optional when one checks for software updates at Microsoft's website.  But WGA started out as an option as well and now is required, so I suspect that eventually OGA will be mandatory and you won't be able to get updates or add-ons if you have a counterfeit copy.