Chris Pirillo spots a lawsuit settlement - apparently, there was a class action suit against Sony making claims about the PS2:

Lawsuits were filed regarding the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system models 30001, 30001R, 35001, 39001, 39010, 50001, and 50010 (“PS2”). The plaintiffs in those cases claim that certain inappropriate “Disc Read Error” messages are displayed. They also claim that some PS2s fail to play and that some of them cause damage to CDs or DVDs during playback. The companies that were sued, including Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (“SCEA”), say they did not do anything wrong and there is nothing wrong with the PS2.

With a settlement, you have no idea if there was actually a problem - companies settle suits all the time, because the cost of litigation exceeds the cost of paying off the lawyers (did someone say "legal extortion"?).

However, given Sony's recent troubles over the rootkit DRM, this is just more bad news that makes you go "hmmmm..." about purchasing Sony stuff.