The proposed settlement would enable consumers who bought, received, or used a Sony CD loaded with XCP to exchange the disc for a replacement CD, an MP3 download of the same album, and either a cash payment of $7.50 and one free album download or three free album downloads. Consumers who have a CD containing MediaMax 5.0 will receive a free MP3 download of the same album and one additional free album download, while those with CDs containing MediaMax 3.0 software will receive a free MP3 download of that same album.

PCWorld.com - Sony May Settle CD Lawsuit

Illegal downloads are still beating legal online music in Europe, analysts have found.

A report from analyst house JupiterResearch discovered that consumers are three times more likely to get their digital music from illegal file-sharing networks than pay to download the tracks from online song shops such as iTunes and Napster, with 15 per cent of consumers using P2P sites and five per cent using the legitimate online shops.

I've seen this article in a few places - including my morning paper on the bus to work. None of the articles have gone into possible reasons why people aren't buying though.
I for one haven't bought any music in over a year - because there's not been anything I think is worth buying, not because I download it illegally - and after recent events I refuse to go and buy any music that is DRM protected or from Sony, and I know a lot of people who are the same. That's a very large chunk of the market that people are refusing to buy. It's very possible that the increasing gap between legal and illegal downloads can be attributed to this, and that the record labels just need to do more to stop putting people off buying music from them.

Young 'prefer illegal song swaps'

In late October Sony was found to be using stealth techniques to hide software that stopped some of its CDs being illegally copied.

Now three virus variants have been found that use the Sony software to evade detection by anti-virus programs.

I think it's actually one virus that goes by three different names, rather than three different viruses.

In the same article is this from Sony.

In response to the concerns, Sony has released a statement "deeply regretting any disruption that this may have caused." It added that it would work with anti-virus firms to ensure its anti-piracy system stayed safe.

Which makes me wonder what exactly they mean about keeping the anti-piracy system safe - For the end user, or from the anti-virus programs...

Viruses use Sony anti-piracy CDs

Sony BMG said today it will offer a patch for one of its own exploits - one that comes bundled with its music CDs.
[...]
However, the patch that Sony will offer doesn't remove the 'rootkit' DRM: it only makes the hidden files visible.

A step in the right direction, albiet a very small one... At least with this patch the security risk from the cloaked files will hopefully be gone.

Sony to offer patch for 'rootkit' DRM

How DomainKeys Works

How it Works - Sending Servers
There are two steps to signing an email with DomainKeys:

Set up: The domain owner (typically the team running the email systems within a company or service provider) generates a public/private key pair to use for signing all outgoing messages (multiple key pairs are allowed). The public key is published in DNS, and the private key is made available to their DomainKey-enabled outbound email servers. This is step "A" in the diagram to the right.
Signing: When each email is sent by an authorized end-user within the domain, the DomainKey-enabled email system automatically uses the stored private key to generate a digital signature of the message. This signature is then pre-pended as a header to the email, and the email is sent on to the target recipient's mail server. This is step "B" in the diagram to the right.

How it Works - Receiving Servers
There are three steps to verifying a signed email:

Preparing: The DomainKeys-enabled receiving email system extracts the signature and claimed From: domain from the email headers and fetches the public key from DNS for the claimed From: domain. This is step "C" in the diagram to the right.
Verifying: The public key from DNS is then used by the receiving mail system to verify that the signature was generated by the matching private key. This proves that the email was truly sent by, and with the permission of, the claimed sending From: domain and that its headers and content weren't altered during transfer.
Delivering: The receiving email system applies local policies based on the results of the signature test. If the domain is verified and other anti-spam tests don't catch it, the email can be delivered to the user's inbox. If the signature fails to verify, or there isn't one, the email can be dropped, flagged, or quarantined. This is step "D" in the diagram on the right.
In general, Yahoo! expects that DomainKeys will be verified by the receiving email servers. However, end-user mail clients could also be modified to verify signatures and take action on the results.

Just found out about this from a Thunderbird update. If it works then this sounds like a very good way to help cut down on phishing specifically, and possibly to help cut back spam in general.

DomainKeys: Proving and Protecting Email Sender Identity