Dr. Dobb's Journal November 2000
A little of this convergence stuff goes a long way. Face it, when media outlets as dissimilar as Parade (that magazine supplement in your Sunday newspaper) and Slashdot.org ("News for nerds. Stuff that matters.") start covering the same stories, maybe it's time to head out for Idaho.
In this case, Parade struck first, hawking its affiliation with Digital Convergence (http://www .digitalconvergence.com/), a company that produces an inexpensive barcode scanner called "CueCat." Reminiscent of the early 1980s Cauzin Strip Reader gambit, Digital Convergence talked Parade, Forbes, and other publications into printing CueCat barcodes on magazine pages and sending free CueCats to subscribers. The company also convinced Radio Shack to print barcodes in its catalog and hand over a CueCat to anyone walking into the store. All in all, millions of the devices and accompanying software were given away. To use the system, you plug the handheld scanner into the keyboard connector on your computer and attach the keyboard to the special split CueCat cable. You then install the Windows/Macintosh drivers, which come on an accompanying CD-ROM.
What can you then do with the CueCat? Not much, as it turns out. First of all, using the CueCat requires you to be connected to the Internet. Assuming you are, scanning a CueCat barcode does nothing more than take you to a web page. If you're perusing the capacitors section of the Radio Shack catalog, for instance, you can go directly to the web page that sells them and order a bunch online. In short, a CueCat barcode replaces a printed URL, simply saving you a bit of typing (this is grandly referred to as "keystroke automation technology.") And no, the URL usually isn't printed in case you don't mind typing it in. The Code 128 codeset C barcodes can't be read by any other scanner because the required start character is missing. In addition to the nonstandard Code 128 and UPC symbologies, the scanner reads Code 39, Interleaved 2-of-5, and Codabar. Alas, if you aren't connected to the Internet, the CueCat doesn't even make a decent boat anchor.
So what's the point? Not user convenience. No, apparently it's all about demographics and purchaser profiles. Every CueCat has a serial number and when you are given a "free" scanner, you also have to give your name, address, phone number, and the like. Every time you use the CueCat and its software, you're telling someone somewhere something about your buying habits. (That's one reason URLs aren't printed alongside the barcodes.)
When picking up my CueCat at the local Radio Shack, the clerk asked if I wanted the Windows or Macintosh software. Actually, I replied, I'd prefer Linux drivers. Sorry, he said, only Windows or Mac. Well, can I write my own Linux drivers? Sure, he replied, go ahead. No problem.
Following the CueCat model, I instead decided to save myself a little typing and find a CueCat Linux driver on the Internet. As it turns out, several programmers had written Linux drivers and related decoder programs. Thanks to the generosity and efforts of a few CueCat "customers," Digital Convergence's userbase had expanded by a few million. You'd think the company would be happy. Wrong again. Instead, Digital Convergence sent out cease-and-desist letters (see http://www.flyingbuttmonkeys.com/ useofthingsyouownisnowillegal/letter-1.jpg) charging everything from intellectual property theft to littering. And that's when Slashdot.org jumped into the fray, as forum participants flamed on issues ranging from whether Digital Convergence's shrinkwrap license is valid and exactly what intellectual property had been misappropriated, to what rights customers have when they become owners of a product.
Digital Convergence eventually responded in a letter (http://slashdot.org/articles/00/09/05/ 0548211.shtml) sorely in need of a spell/grammar/punctuation checker. Probably the most amazing assertion was that it took "5 years of hard work by a group of [Digital Convergence's] 'geeks, hackers, and techno-whizzes'" to write the software that volunteer programmers put together in a matter of days. Instead of identifying exactly what intellectual property was at issue, the letter lambasted both the Linux and open-source communities and included an odd reference that volunteer programmers are helping Microsoft. Finally, the letter stated that Linux support is forthcoming and that an inexpensive developer's license is available (good luck in finding out about it on the company's web site or CueCat documentation, however). Although Digital Convergence claims it would like to set the record straight with developers, no one there would accept or return repeated phone calls.
A gimmicky input device really isn't the issue here. What is at issue is the trend of companies using questionable licenses and heavy-handed lawyers when dealing with customers who still believe in concepts such as ownership and private property. My guess is that Digital Convergence doesn't give a hoot about the intellectual property behind CueCat. Why would they? There's nothing new about base64+XOR, which CueCat encoding is based on; there don't seem to be any patent violations (if any patents exist); copyright hasn't been infringed upon; and no one has abused any trademarks. No, what the company wants to protect is the way in which it (and its clients) profiles CueCat users. What ought to scare Digital Convergence more than a Linux driver or third-party encoder is a database of all CueCat barcodes/URLs, whereby users could go to a specific web page without being tracked. Now that would be the cat's meow.
Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief
jerickson@ddj.com