Google makes over a million public domain books available in EPUB format

The deal may have first been announced somewhat quietly last month, but now that Sony’s come out with what’s arguably its most attractive e-reader to date, the availability of over a million public domain books in the Sony-friendly EPUB format is sure to garner a fair bit more attention. As Google announced on its Inside Google Books blog, those books are now all available for download starting today and are, of course, completely free and able to be used on the EPUB-supporting device of your choice. The move also takes on a particular prominence in light of Google’s recent fight with Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon and the Open Book Alliance, who have taken issue with Google’s settlement with book publishers and authors that would give it the right to digitize orphan works and make the now out-of-print (but non-public domain) books widely available.