How does the ISAN affect copyright registration?
It doesn’t – because the ISAN is not related in any way to copyright, in either the European or North American sense of that term. The ISAN is an identification number without any legal implication or meaning. It has no value as prima facie evidence regarding the copyright status or ownership of a work. The scope of the ISAN standard clearly states: “The issuance of an ISAN shall in no way be related to any process of copyright registration, nor shall the issuance of an ISAN provide evidence of the ownership of rights in a work.
The ISAN is not related in any way to copyright. It is an identification number without any legal implication or meaning. It has no intrinsic value as prima facie evidence regarding the copyright status or ownership of a work. Even though the ISAN may be used by collecting societies as a tool to precisely distinguish each work in their databases, the ISAN itself does not identify rights owners. The scope of the ISAN standard clearly states: “The issuance of an ISAN shall in no way be related to any process of copyright registration, nor shall the issuance of an ISAN provide evidence of the ownership of rights in a work.
