I got this e-mail yesterday, and to be honest I can’t really make head nor tail of it, so because I simply don’t have time (Read: I can’t be arsed), I’ll let you clever people out there tell me whether DCL are being naughty or not.

They registered the company as a LLC in Ohio. (Contact Info Business Filing Info Prior Business Name Info
DCL PUBLICATIONS, LLC 1760375 Domestic Limited Liability Company Feb 19 2008 Active )

They register the books with the Australian address (of the co-owner) in Australia with their library of congress, because the ISBN’s are free.

According to the state of Ohio and the ISBN commission, you can’t do that, it is considered an illegal act.

http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbnus.asp
http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/major.asp

An example of the ISBN’s in question:

(Book title)
© 2008 by (Author name)
All rights reserved
First Edition April 2008
DCL Publications
36 Monash Street
Melton South
Victoria
Australia
3338
www.thedarkcastlelords.com
ISBN 978-1-921347- (shortened to protect the author in case this is just a misunderstanding)

This was published as DCL, being a registered company of Ohio, yet the ISBN is Australian.

It states on the first link that the US ISBN agency “cannot assign ISBNs to foreign publishers”, but I guess if DCL are registered in Ohio, then this might not even apply? Although the above ISBN details clearly lists the Australian address, rather than the Ohio one.

I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation, because I don’t for one moment believe that an e-book publisher would be so blatant about breaking the rules. *g*

I must admit, at first glance, I couldn’t see much wrong with it, but then I’m not an expert on these things.

Anybody out there want to shed some light on this for me?

Thanks to you-know-who for the e-mail.