this news is old as dirt. it's been covered in many threads
here's the "official" deal: 3rd party companies are selling the batteries now, and Apple is actually trying to reduce the cost of replacing the battery for you. right now it's around 100 dollars.
Apple also said this guy had charged his iPod way more than he needed to, even if it didn't need charging. Apple says the batteries generally hold 500+ charges.....and the battery in these things apparently don't need to be charged that often......do the math.