The FAQ of the company responsible for selling ISBNs in Germany (1000 ISBNs cost ~310 EUR incl. VAT here) states that the country of the publisher is the decisi

The FAQ of the company responsible for selling ISBNs in Germany (1000 ISBNs cost ~310 EUR incl. VAT here) states that the country of the publisher is the decisive factor on where to buy the ISBNs. So if a book written by the author got translated to German, would he have to buy a German ISBN? Otherwise he could just acquire all his ISBNs in Canada for free?