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Domain: isbn.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to isbn.org.
Comments · 12
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Re:Which was always obvious.
But then they make it next to impossible to get something on the iBookStore anyway
http://www.macnews.com/2010/08/10/gregs-bite-how-publish-apple-ibook
Book content requirements: ISBNs for all titles you intend to distribute. You must be able to deliver your book content in EPUB format, passing EpubCheck 1.0.5.
Financial requirements: A US tax ID, a valid iTunes Store account, with a credit card on file.You must have an ISBN number issued for your book and you should reserve the title (see #1 and #2 below). Getting a bar code might also be a good idea. You must have a unique ISBN number for each book you post to the iBooks store. If you look at the jacket on any book, you will notice a ISBN number. It costs 25 for each ISBN number for each book. That unique number identifies your book in a giant data base along with the author's name, date of being published, title etc. You apply for a ISBN number at the following URL: http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/application.asp .
You can get a book title registered to prevent confusion by having an identical title with another book by going to: http://www.bowkerlink.com/corrections/common/home.asp . This is free.
You may also get a special bar code from the same web site at the following link: http://www.bowkerbarcode.com/barcode/
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Re:I wonder
I have to go work in some CSS style sheets for a web site that links ISBN numbers to UPC codes. I hope they don't make me redundant.
They won't make you redundant. ISBN-13, that'll make you redundant.
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Re:ISBN-10?
This is most likely because of old ordering, warehousing, and library software. There is some information here.
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Intellectual property?
FTA
... The Coop claims the ISBN identification numbers in books are their intellectual property
From the website of the International ISBN Agency
The principal functions of the International ISBN Agency are:
- To promote and supervise the world-wide use of the ISBN system.
- To approve the definition and structure of group agencies.
- To advise on the establishment and functioning of group agencies.
- To allocate range identifiers to group agencies.
- To advise group agencies on the allocation of international publisher identifiers.
A range of umbers are assigned to them. How can the identification numbers be their intellectual property then?
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US ISBN AgencyYou're forgetting the issuing agent, the US ISBN Agency. From their website:
As the U.S. ISBN Agency, R R Bowker is the exclusive US source of publisher prefixes and accompanying ranges of ISBN numbers for eligible publishers.
Once the ISBN number is sold to the publisher, they "own" it and can do with it what they please. One could argue, however, that the display of the ISBN on the outside of the book or on publisher or publisher-approved websites constitutes public disclosure, resulting in forfeiture of that knowledge to the public domain. -
One Minor Correction
...it is recirculated once the book goes out of print; many books have the same ISBN but only one in print book at a time can use it. One minor correction, from ISBN.org, I found: ISBN CAN NEVER BE REUSED: Once an ISBN is assigned to a title, it CANNOT BE REASSIGNED even if the title goes out of print. In addition to being an order fulfillment tool, the ISBN is a bibliographic element in cataloging. It is printed on catalog cards, in catalogs and entered in national and international databases. So it always has to be the same book, it's never 'recycled.' -
ISBNs are the IP of:
ISBNs on books are the IP of The US ISBN Agency, and since they have the sole authority in the U.S. to issue ISBNs, it's a bit of a stretch (read: LIE) for any other legal entity to claim that the ISBN printed on the book are their IP.
If you prefer, you can ask The National Information Standards Organization, which will tell you the for country X it's organization Y. For instance, Canadians will use their own agency.
The desire to destroy competition is alive and well. Let's hope this is one attempt which fails miserably.
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Re:ISBN's owned by no one"So in effect, ISBN's are owned by no one except for the distributing and maintaining body."
That is what I thought when I read this, so I went searching the net. I found the ISBN U.S. Agency which is stewarded by Bowker. I do not see how any book store can own the copyright to the ISBN number when they have no control over it.
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Re:exactly!
if p2p files are legit, why do you need checksums..
Huh? Do you ask why ISBNs have checksums as well? Assuming they're "legit", of course... -
Re:CheckPoint != Checkpoint
Maybe they should come out with a ISBN like serial number http://www.isbn.org/ for all of these companies so we could tell them apart.
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Re:url
Well, "/wolf/wired" is short enough that it would be ambiguous, but I agree completely with the sentiment. mod_rewrite all the way, man.
When every Amazon URI I can remember had "exec/obidos" in it, there's obviously some redundancy. ISBNs are near-universal book addresses, and (at the moment) they're 10 digits, but Amazon is making me look at "exec/obidos/tg/detail//03755 02904/qid=1068751824/sr=12-8/103-2810600-6302246" = 77 characters, and that's leaving out the "www." and the reasonable query string.
There are 36 alphanumeric characters (so we're not even counting
5 29009512147947683368878710518963676135121221268151 26166485053049143296. Does Amazon have that many products? Does it have a millionth that many products? A billionth? A trillionth?No? So why is it making me haul around that many characters? Web programming my foot.
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Re:Books have an ISBN...
But it seems that these current systems must use "registration agencies" to act as the gatekeeper of the unique ID.
Several folks have pointed out that internet 'data registration' systems all require a gatekeeper, as if that was a deficiency as compared to the ISBN system. However, the ISBN system *itself* has a gatekeeper.