HACKER Q&A
📣 blindprogrammer

Why is Bowker's monopoly on ISBNs in the USA legal?


Apparently, this company has the sole right to issue ISBNs; no other company in the USA is legally allowed to do so. This is highly unusual, since it is a for-profit corporation, not a government agency. So I must be missing something—why is this possible?

Imagine if the government required car license plates, but instead of issuing them itself or through its affiliates, there was a parasitic middleman that the government required you to buy from. I know ICANN is somewhat similar, but ICANN is effectively a child of a U.S. defense agency, so it makes sense—and you can buy domains from multiple companies.

Why isn’t ISBN funded and run by a government agency, like the U.S. Trademark Office?

  👤 testing22321 Accepted Answer ✓
As a counterpoint, every Canadian gets 10 free ISBNs they can use. If they use those up (I’m close) they can buy more cheaply.

This is what a society looks like that isn’t run for the purpose of maximizing profit of companies.

👤 tacostakohashi
Actually it's highly usual. Lots of things are like this, e.g. UPC numbers for barcodes, D&B / D-U-N-S numbers, CUSIPs.

The government doesn't require books to have ISBNs, so why should issuing them be the government's problem?

There's nothing to stop you from setting up your own, alternative book numbering system that nobody cares about if you think you can do a better job.

👤 riffic
> ICANN is effectively a child of a U.S. defense agency

is it?

👤 Xorakios
Because they co-created the idea?

Trademarks and patents are enforced by governments. Unique identifiers for books was a marketing idea. You, me, anyone could create a new system and somebody probably will :)