Sony doing something right?

Marco seems to be experiencing a distinct lack of suck with his Sony eReader.

Sure, he needs special Sony software to convert whatever format he has the book in into the Sony format, but from what I have read, it is very accepting of original formats, which is as uncharacteristically Sony as making a product that is fully functional. When I read that it acted like a regular flash drive when you plugged it in, my skeptic-o-meter pegged.

So what's the catch here Sony?

Is it set to lock you out until you plug it into a computer and let it do a Sony "update" every month? Will a future update remove some useful functionality? Or will you dust off the old standby, software update makes computer unusable necessitating uninstallation of the software, and reinstallation of the original version from the CD, followed my months of clicking "don't update" until the software updates itself anyway, causing you to repeat the process?

What am I thinking? This is Sony we're talking about!

Tell us about the secret transmitter reporting what books are loaded so you can sic your lawyers if you find one you don't think the user bought? Where in the proprietary eReader file format is the reader storing the amount of time the reader spends per page, what books they finish quickly, and what books they reread so that data can be uploaded the next time it's connected? Where is the flesh eating beetle compartment set to open if the user doesn't buy the extended warranty?

C'mon Sony. No one can take a great new idea, create great hardware, install great firmware, and fuck it all up with cumbersome, feature limiting, locked down software like you can! No way this is the exception that proves the rule. I'll just wait a year or two for the nasty to come out...