Sony, of All Companies, to Ditch Proprietary eBook Formats [Ebooks]

Sony, which we’ve blasted in the past for an insistence on proprietary formats, will support the open standard ePub format for its ebook readers. Open, of course, doesn’t mean “free of DRM”: This is really a jab at Amazon.

ePub, a format created by Random House and a network of other publishers, is designed to stop the kind of monopoly on ebooks that Apple enjoys over legal digital music sales. As one of the biggest names to officially jump into the ebook game, Sony throws a lot of weight behind ePub, which is currently supported by Plastic Logic as well. Of course, if Apple gets into the game, all bets are off, but if ePub can get a substantial share in the extremely young ebook market, it could mean a much more interesting future for ebook readers. [New York Times]

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