Re: ISBNs

From: Dan L. Burk <BURKDANL[_at_]shu.edu>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 16:42:46 -0400

On 4/18/97, Dan Agin <specpress[_at_]earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Carol Cricow <carol[_at_]yujean.com> wrote:
> >
> > My question is: my client who is a publisher insists that he
> > wants to "own" the ISBNs for the various products that result. Can
> > one "own" an ISBN number and what does "ownership" thereof entitled
> > one to?
>

[snippage]
>
> The purpose of the ISBN number is primarily to assist bookshops
> in ordering the work from publishers and distributors. I see no
> relevance to copyright.

Oh, I see a lot of relevance, to copyright and related areas. West's claims to its citation system are essentially claims to indexing numbers. The current spate of fights over Internet domain names and IP addresses is similarly about indexing. ISBN numbers hadn't occurred to me to be another potential trouble area, but it seems that I may have to think about them more carefully in the future.

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Dan L. Burk
Seton Hall University
burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu

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Received on Sat Apr 19 1997 - 20:51:14 GMT