· WHOISBN?

Explore the capital relationships in the publishing world: scan the barcode of a book to check who owns its publisher.

https://whoisbn.net/app/app-debug.apk

V1.0.2 - 10th May, 2025, 16:00 | Latest dev version, developped for 978-2/979-10 ISBN zones (FR).

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Download and open the app, scan a barcode, check the result, share it with your friends !

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HOW DOES IT WORKS?

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 in your hands, then indicates which company owns the publishing house, then who owns the company that owns the company, and so on, down to the ultimate beneficiary.

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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ABOUT

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, Désarmer Bolloré & Désarmer Stérin, Déborder Bolloré, the recent mapping of the French publishers Edition Française, qui possède quoi? [Agone, 2025].

WHOISBN? also draws on earlier writings and researches on the oligopolistic nature of the media : Serge Halimi, Les nouveaux chiens de garde, 1997 ; Médias français, qui possède quoi? Le Monde diplomatique, 2007 ; Bureau d'études, Gouvernement des médias, 2015 ; Josh On, They Rule, 2001 ; etc.

REFERENCES

• La carte des médias, qui possède quoi ?(A map of medias, who owns who?), Le Monde Diplomatique, 2007.

• mdiplo / Medias_francais, Base de données de la carte des médias français du Monde Diplomatique.

• Déborder Bolloré, campaign by Burn-Août Editions and 128 independant publishers.

• Édition française, qui possède quoi ?(French publishers map. Who owns who?) Eds Agone & Le Monde Diplomatique & LVSL

• STOP BOLLORÉ, a boycott campaign by 100 antifacist librarians against Bolloré.

• Les nouveaux chiens de garde(The New Watchdogs), Serge Halimi, Eds. Raisons d'Agir (1997).

• Les Nouveaux chiens de garde(The New Watchdogs), documentary by Gilles Balbastre & Yannick Kergoat, 2012.

• Bloquer Bolloré, (Block Bolloré) a list of filters to insall in uBlockOrigin mirror, to block on internet Bolloré far-right medias.

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INSTALLATION

WHOISBN? can be downloaded here:

https://whoisbn.net/app/app-debug.apk

Latest version: 1.0.2, May 10, 2025 at 16:00; 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.

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

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

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FUTURE DEVS

WHOISBN works, for now only on the french publishing market and books (978-2 / 979-10), but our intention is to expand the scope to other countries, and other publication types (ISSN) through collective workshops and data gathering. Contact us if interested.

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CONTRIBUTE

Let's set up working groups, to glean information, distribute the app, debug, find strategies that work for other zones, cover the whole international publishing spectrum, extend to magazines and newspapers, to anything with an EAN and a barcode... Let's talk about it, this work can be done in a network, but let's avoid the centralized model of platforms that capitalizes on the free labor of users. Let's maintain the app, let's update the data via a network of affinities and complicities!

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RYBN.ORG, 2025

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