John Palfrey, over at the Law School, tells the Coop why it doesn't own exclusive rights to the ISBNs on the books it sells. He adds:

It's fairly certain that The Coop can kick students out of their store for many reasons, but the claim of [intellectual property] in the facts of what books I and others are assigning to our students is off the mark. I for one certainly never conveyed such a right to the Coop.

Walk into the Coop with a notebook and pen and you could wind up getting kicked out. Seems the Coop considers book prices "intellectual property" and takes exception to people spotted taking down prices to see if they can get a better deal elsewhere, such as on this site:

... Coop President Jerry P. Murphy '73 said that while there is no Coop policy against individual students copying down book information, "we discourage people who are taking down a lot of notes." ...