Store Claims Ownership of ISBN Numbers

The Harvard Coop, a cooperative store in Harvard Square that is the official book source for Harvard students (and used to be for MIT students, though I think that may have changed), apparently claims that the ISBN numbers of textbooks it carries are its intellectual property, according to Harvard's undergraduate newspaper, the Harvard Crimson. The store had kicked out a Harvard junior for writing down the ISBN numbers - an international system of book title serial numbers - of a set of books needed for a sociology class.

The apparent new policy could be a response to efforts by Crimsonreading.org—an online database that allows students to find the books they need for each course at discounted prices from several online booksellers—from writing down the ISBN identification numbers for books at the Coop and then using that information for their Web site.

The only problem with the ISBN theory is that publishers pay to get the numbers assigned to them. I'm scratching my head as to how a book seller - which is only carrying the set of books because they are a requirement of the university, and isn't independently putting the series together - would claim an intellectual property right. Maybe the store management should head over to the Harvard Law School and see if some kind professor would give them a reality-restoring dope slap.