This was just a random German online book seller that are connected to a major distribution system. I don't know how it is elsewhere in the world, we in Germany

This was just a random German online book seller that are connected to a major distribution system. I don't know how it is elsewhere in the world, we in Germany have just a fe major distributors. I remember when publishing my PhD thesis I could chose if I wanted a ISBN and allow global distribution, when self publishing on Amazon (was much cheaper than any other options that required my to buy a batch). Actually small publishers have been living a lot of PhD theses in Germany, but nowadays electronic publication is allowed and not everyone has boxes of their manuscript in the basement as it used to be.