Adobe's proprietary DRM-protected ePub / Sony

NY Times's Brad Stone writes about Sony's announcement that "...by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format, an open standard created by a group including publishers like Random House and HarperCollins. and that Sony "will scrap its proprietary anticopying software in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe that restricts how often e-books can be shared or copied."

Note that Adobe's DRM-protected ePub format (in effect, a proprietary format when DRM is added to a standard container format with no native DRM) can be read by e-readers that incorporate Adobe's Digital Editions firmware (Astak's 5" Pocket Pro Reader for one).  Most e-readers will not read the DRM-protected books and PDFs.  Publishers do tend to insist on some kind of protection.

  As Teleread points out, Sony is not going to a really 'open' format (which would be non-DRM'd ePub) -- and Adobe will call the shots as more e-readers sign up for their proprietary protected format.  However, Stone's NY Times piece did point out (see above) that Sony was opting, with respect to its own anti-copying software, " in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe that restricts how often e-books can be shared or copied."

GigaOM explains the implications of Sony and Adobe's latest moves.