1. Great post but you missed one issue:

With Gracenote, Sony has gained the ability to monitor all kinds of information about individual iTunes users: which music they listen to, where they are located, how many CDRs they rip, and more. I doubt Sony will try to cut Apple off with this treasure-trove of information being supplied by Apple's own customers.

This should be frightening for consumers considering Sony is the company that launched the rootkit. It is easy to imagine Sony using this ability to check for piracy.

Apple needs to consider alternatives if it does not want Sony spying on Apple customers.