CueCat

The title of this article is incorrect because of technical limitations. The correct title is :CueCat.

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The :CueCat was a cat-shaped handheld barcode reader, manufactured by the now-defunct Digital:Convergence and intended for printed catalogs and newspapers. With these, readers could scan a barcode printed on the page and then be taken to a web page with related information. Advertisements containing :CueCat barcodes actually appeared—briefly—in some high-circulation U. S. mass-market periodicals, notably PARADE magazine. For a time, RadioShack published catalogs with these barcodes, and even distributed :CueCat devices at no charge. :CueCats were also bulk mailed (unsolicited) to certain mailing lists, such as subscribers of technology magazines.

A USB version was also available in limited quantities. The data format is proprietary, being scrambled so as not to be usable as plain text – however the barcode itself is closely related to Code 128, and the scanner was also capable of reading EAN/UPC and some other symbologies as well. Due to the weak obfuscation of the data, the software for decoding the CueCat's output quickly appeared on the Internet, followed by a plethora of unofficial applications.

The :CueCat device was controversial, initially due to privacy concerns. Each :CueCat has a unique serial number, and users suspected that Digital:Convergence could compile a database of all barcodes scanned by a given user and connect it to the user's name and address. For this reason, and because the demographic market targeted by Digital:Convergence was unusually tech-savvy, numerous web sites arose detailing instructions for "declawing" the :CueCat — blocking or encrypting the data it sent to Digital:Convergence.

The company's response to these hacks was to assert that users did not own the devices and had no right to modify or reverse engineer them. Threats of legal action against the hackers swiftly brought on more controversy and criticism. The company's licensing agreement was changed several times, adding explicit restrictions, apparently in response to hacker activity. Hackers argued that the changes did not apply retroactively to devices that had been purchased under older versions of the license, and that the thousands of users who received unsolicited :CueCats in the mail had not agreed to nor were legally bound by the license.

The :CueCat's failure to catch on in the early adopter market to which it was marketed prevented any chance of wider acceptance.

Although Digital Convergence and the :CueCat are generally assumed to be defunct, the Digital Convergence website remained as a "ghost site" through 2004. Since September 21st, 2002 the home page has said the same thing:

The dream was to connect items in the physical world to the Internet, automatically. In January that dream hit a bump in the road and the servers were taken offline. They will scan again... If you have a Cue Cat, save it. The patents and technology created by DigitalConvergence will again be available for business and consumer use.

In June, 2005, a liquidator offered two million :CueCats for sale at $0.30 each (in quantities of 500,000 or more).

External links

• "Declawing" the :CueCat (http://cexx.org/cuecat.htm)
• A collection of :CueCat links (http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Bar_Code/CueCat/) from Google Directory
• Digital:Convergence (http://web.archive.org/web/20041130091655/http://www.digitalconvergence.com/) (Internet Archive) — the official site still existed as a "ghost site" until November 2004
• Products (http://web.archive.org/web/20040323061716/http://dcnv.com/products/) (Internet Archive) — Product images and descriptions from the "ghost site"
• Digital Convergence Changes EULA, and Gets Cracked (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/09/18/1129226&mode=thread) License changes
• Liquidation sale (http://www.spintradeexchange.com/liquidation.htm)
• Story about liquidation sale (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/12/two_million_cuecats_.html)