Amazon Standard Identification Number
The Amazon Standard Identification Number ( ASIN ) is a ten-digit alphanumeric product identification number that was introduced by Amazon mail order companies.
use
The ASIN is an internal catalog number and, unlike the ISBN, does not represent an international standard.
Every product that is offered on one of the Amazon websites receives a unique ASIN. For books that have an ISBN, the ASIN corresponds to the old ten-digit ISBN that was valid until 2006. Books without a (ten-digit) ISBN and all other articles are assigned an ASIN.
The ASIN can be viewed on the respective product page of each article. The web address ( URL ) of every product in Amazon's catalog also contains the ASIN. The shortest way to do this is
https://amazon.de/dp/xxxxxxxxxx
which xxxxxxxxxxmust be replaced by the ASIN. For example, the Wikipedia DVD-ROM from September 20, 2006 has ASIN 3898530213. The URL is:
https://amazon.de/dp/3898530213
criticism
- Representatives of the open content movement such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales criticize the dominance of ASIN, which is driving smaller manufacturers in particular into a lock-in with the department store, and suggest the creation of an open alternative where manufacturers are inexpensive and without proprietary ones Control can register new product IDs and the resulting databases are available under a free license.
- The use of an ASIN can be viewed as a trademark infringement for retailers in Germany without the ASIN having to be apparent to the end user, the Düsseldorf Regional Court ruled on May 28, 2014 (Az. 2a O 277/13).
Web links
- What are ASINs, ISBNs, EANs and UPCs? Amazon.de, accessed January 28, 2013 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jimmy Wales: Ten Things That Will Be Free (Keynote at Wikimania 2005, August 2005. Section 8. Free the Product Identifiers! )
- ↑ Amzkey: Use of foreign ASIN numbers violates trademark law. Retrieved August 16, 2020.