[spectre] WHOISBN?

[rybn]

WHOISBN?

WHOISBN? lets you explore the capital relationships in the publishing 
world: scan the barcode of a book to check who owns its publisher.

https://whoisbn.net/fr/

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How does it work?

The ISBN is a unique, permanent identification number assigned to each 
book. It appears on the cover in the form of a barcode, and comprises 13 
characters.

WHOISBN? lets you scan this barcode to find out who owns the publishing 
house of the book you're holding, who owns the company that controls the 
business, and so on, down to the ultimate beneficiary at the end of the 
chain.

WHOISBN? then assigns a grade between A and F to this owner, according 
to its size in the publishing market, and its political orientation.

WHOISBN? is currently limited to the French segments of ISBNs assigned 
by AFNIL (978-2/979-10). Extensions are planned for other ISBN zones.

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Why?

The French publishing world is highly concentrated. Today, after decades 
of acquisitions and takeovers, 90% of the market is dominated by 5 
publishing conglomerates, headed by 5 billionaires. Statistically, in 
90% of cases, buying a book means strengthening the empires of Vincent 
Bolloré (Hachette), Daniel Křetínský (CMI/Editis), Bernard Arnault 
(LVMH, Madrigall), Francis Esménard (Albin Michel) or the 
Michelin-Montagne family (Média Participations), whose omnipresence 
steers public opinion. The rest of the market is a constellation of 
independent publishers. The situation is relatively similar in other 
countries, such as Germany, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain or the United 
States, to name a few.

WHOISBN? aims to inform readers about whether or not a publisher belongs 
to a major publishing conglomerate - and the political orientation of 
its owner—so that they can take these criteria into account when buying 
a book (or not). In this way, the application contributes to the boycott 
of major groups, and to resisting the extreme right-wingization of 
public debate.

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STOP Bolloré and co.

WHOISBN? aims to join forces with a series of initiatives aimed at 
reducing the oligopolistic power of the major media groups, and the grip 
of the extreme right on the media field : Stop Bolloré 
[https://actualitte.com/article/104761/tribunes/stopbollore-la-tradition-democratique-est-aujourd-hui-menacee], 
Désarmer Bolloré & Désarmer Stérin [https://desarmerbollore.net/], 
Déborder Bolloré [https://deborderbollore.fr/], the recent mapping of 
the French publishers 'Edition Française, qui possède quoi?' [Agone, 
2025 https://agone.org/livre/edition-francaise-qui-possede-quoi/].

WHOISBN? also draws on earlier writings and researches on the 
oligopolistic nature of the media [S. Halimi, les nouveaux chiens de 
garde, 1997 - 
https://www.raisonsdagir-editions.org/catalogue/les-nouveaux-chiens-de-garde-2/ 
; Médias français, qui possède quoi? Le Monde diplomatique, 2007 - 
https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/PPA ; Bureau d'études, 
Gouvernement des médias, 2015 - 
https://bureaudetudes.org/category/gouvernement-des-medias/ ; Josh On, 
They Rule, 2001 - https://theyrule.net/ ; etc.].

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Install the application

WHOISBN? can be downloaded here: https://whoisbn.net

Latest version: 1.0.1, May 8, 2025 at 14:00; developed for the French 
ISBN zone (AFNIL register, 978-2/979-10). To extend it to other zones, 
please contact us.

WHOISBN? runs on Android and can only be installed via this website. We 
refuse to use Google App Store. It will eventually be downloadable from 
F-Droid. Updates are not automatic, so please check the website 
regularly to download the latest version.

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Data and sources

WHOISBN?is open source and FLOSS, and the source code will soon be 
available on our Git [https://git.rybn.org/users/rybn/projects].

WHOISBN? is based on the database “La carte des médias, qui possède 
quoi?” initiated by Le Monde diplomatique, which we have extended to the 
French publishing world [https://github.com/mdiplo/Medias_francais].

The data comes from AFNIL, the agency in charge of the ISBN allocation 
for the French publishers ; Nudger, an international database of already 
attributed ISBNs ; and the SNE database.


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