

ISBN numbers and electronic distribution: What IS an eBook, anyway? - bensummers
http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-is-ebook-anyway.html

======
gjm11
One of these days I intend to write a short piece of fiction in which all the
usual solecisms occur _but are, in context, perfectly correct_. So, for
instance, there would be a machine for making those cash-withdrawal devices:
an "ATM machine". There would be a criminal gang with a big numbered list of
identifying numbers and the accounts they apply for, hence lots of "PIN
numbers". Perhaps someone would be doing statistics on the rate at which books
are published, as measured by the rate of ISBN allocation, so their figures
would be "ISBN numbers". And so forth.

(The actual article is about the question: when you have a bunch of very
closely related things, such as "the same" e-book in different formats, should
they get different ISBNs?. The author says that the answer is: they should get
different ISBNs if and only if "the supply chain" needs to distinguish between
them, and that there are some awkward edge cases for this criterion when
dealing with e-books. For what it's worth, I didn't find it enormously
interesting.)

~~~
bensummers
That was an error in my rewriting of the article title on submission, not of
the article author. I must pay more attention in future.

