Sony doesn't have a great history with open formats, especially when it's involved in content distribution. Their greed and obsession with proprietary formats killed any potential they had in the minidisc market back when minidisc was still a viable format. It caused them to get off to a very slow start in the mp3 player market (a travesty given the enviable branding they had as a reliable manufacturer of portable music players as a hangover from the walkman days). Hopefully they've learned their lesson and can provide more open firmware for their existing readers, or at least make their next generation of readers more open... But I'm not holding my breath
