# Illegal to Make ISBN Barcodes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-make-isbn-barcodes/78107>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 25, 2001, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-make-isbn-barcodes/78107 "2001-08-25T19:06:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phita23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/848f3c/32.png) [@phita23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phita23)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-make-isbn-barcodes/78107/1 "2001-08-25T19:06:20Z")

</div>

If I have registered a set of ISBN numbers, is it ok for me to generate my own ISBN barcode? Some people tell me it’s illegal to create my own barcode, and must pay them 20 bucks for them to do it. But it seems I can do it just as well, so whats the deal?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-make-isbn-barcodes/78107/2 "2001-08-25T19:27:52Z")

</div>

Must pay _whom_ $20? I know several places that barcode their own property (and there are several barcode printing software vendors on the net). I do not currently know anyone in book publishing, but I know a magazine publisher that barcodes their own stock.

I could imagine a scenario where a particular industry had barcode standards that required you to submit your efforts to them to be sure that you were in compliance with the standards, (and they would, of course, charge you for the monitoring service), but I am having a hard time figuring out what sort of organization would require that you pay them to do barcoding that you could do, yourself).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-make-isbn-barcodes/78107/3 "2001-08-25T19:48:38Z")

</div>

I’m not sure I understand either, but I found a list of [ISBN barcode suppliers](http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/barcode.html) through [http://www.isbn.org](http://www.isbn.org)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-make-isbn-barcodes/78107/4 "2001-08-25T19:57:47Z")

</div>

phita, your question is soo poorly phrased it makes no sense to me. Can you please try to explain it better?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegal-to-make-isbn-barcodes/78107/5 "2001-08-25T21:55:59Z")

</div>

I worked at a prepress shop, and we used to get ISBN barcodes from many many different sources, and we’d make them ourselves if the customer couldn’t figure out how to do it. I assure you that it’s not illegal to make your barcodes on your own. You have to get a legitimately assigned ISBN, but that’s all the legalities.