That's a common misconception. What it would do was when indexing a folder with DRM'd music files, it would automatically try to add the rights to the store on your local computer. They weren't using that specific functionality to scan and report. And, it was opt in (when you first started wmp)
Getting track titles automatically (gracenote, etc) might be what you're mixing in - and that was also opt in, and even open source software has that functionality now (VLC, for example)
