CueCat Goes After Online Barcode Database

Just noted that CueCat is going for this year's Useless Legal Action Beanie by going after www.upcdatabase.com, a site that is storing UPC codes and allows people to look them up. The database contains almost a half a million entries right now. Unfortunately they're not distributing copies of their database, so it may be necessary to create an open db just to make sure that this data isn't locked up. Update: 09/28 08:14 PM by CT : Lineo's cuecat site was taken down also.

Comments

Not about the Database itself, but using :CC scans

[Whizard]

I'm friends with the guy who runs upcdatabase.com, and I just thought I'd mention a couple things that made this post slightly inaccurate.

First off, the C&D letter is regarding the ability his site has to accept a UPC code directly from a CueCat scan, not about the database itself. He has a text input you can click in, and then scan the UPC code, and it will send it to a CGI script that decodes the CueCat scan, and looks up the UPC code in his database.

Secondly, the reason his database isn't publicly available is because he got a lot of seed data for it from a third-party source with the agreement that the entire DB wouldn't be made publicly available. (No evil closed-source-ness conspiracies here, he's actually a strong supporter of open source, and has written several open source programs you can find on Freshmeat.)

Wacky patent. So why not circumvent HTTP for now?

[hatless]

A barcode-to-web-lookup patent, especially if awarded in the last 15 years, would be especially nutty. Barcode scanners have been used to trigger data lookups across networks for as long as there have been barcodes. I find it hard to believe that shop-floor, factory and warehouse barcode readers weren't being used to pull up mainframe data 20-plus years ago. Must find this NeoMedia patent. Sounds on the face of it like yet another bit of galling ineptitude at the USPTO.

Hey! I have an idea! How about rigging, say, a modified finger daemon to hand out item URLs to scanning applications. Then the lookups wouldn't be done "on the web".

It's Not about database.

[FoxIVX]

This letter wasn't sent in regards to the database he has amassed, they would have no legal griveance over that. However, like the rest of us, he has a perl script that you can scan your :cue:cat directly into, and use it as your search query, this "violating" their IP. This is what they're pissed about, just like the other hackers who got letters. They probably dont like that there is a competing database of UPC codes, but certainly have no legal right to go after them for that.

-Josh

Re:I like the cue cat posts

[Anonymous Coward]

DO NOT IGNORE Digital Convergence.

This organization is probably the most evil direct marketing organization ever constructed, every CueCat device has a serial number that is sent with barcode data that is swiped. On top of that they want you hook up your computer to your TV so your TV can control your computer. You can see this in action on the Infomercial they started running, the theme of Angels from Heaven watching the activities of the residence of the Town of Convergence, USA isn't very far away from a big corporation collecting data from everyone to see if they're being naughty or nice consumers. They want you to think you're in control. It isn't about where you want to go and do, it's all about them collecting datapoints about what TV shows you watch, what products you have in your home, what magazines you read, what books you own, and what foods you eat.

DO NOT IGNORE Digital Convergence.

DC's Executive Bio's is a laundry list of people everyone hates, direct marketers and data miners. These are the people who create the databases of people, the ones that get sold to telemarketers that call you every day of the work week during dinner to do a "consumer survey." You think your telephone sucks now? Imagine what life will be like when someone calls you to offer you coupons for everything you ever scanned, only if you buy them from their catalog or bring the coupons to their store.

DO NOT IGNORE Digital Convergence.

This is the true begining of the war on our privacy. They want people to scan everything, and I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually suggest tatooing barcodes on your wrist for the ultimate digital wallet application. Christans might have some choice words about that event when it happens.

Some people might make light of all their gaffes with privacy and security. Don't brush them off just because of their incompetence so far. They will get better at what they do and the value of their "data" will escalate. Don't bet for a minute that your profile data won't be sold to Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Banks, Experian, Transunion, or Equifax.

You did fill out a fake name and address when you got your CueCat from Radio Shack. Didn't you?

Digital Convergence delenda est.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Have you filed your complaint with the USPS?

[Moray_Reef]

Read about how DC has commited mail fraud (and how to file your complaint with the US postal service) here.

And learn how to 'de-claw' (so it doesn't send out a serial number) your ::cue::crap spammer-- er uh scanner here.

Won't work- Here's what they MIGHT be using...

[Svartalf]

The following is a copy of an e-mail I sent to FBM and the author of FooCat. It is in response to something that was, up until yesterday, on his site, quoting an interview the DC CEO had with an east-coast newspaper. In the interview, the CEO mentions that it's a patent that they acquired that was issued by the USPTO in 1991, that purportedly covers scanning a barcode and generating a network event. If the interview is accurate and doesn't have typos or incorrect info, the following information would be of import (Note: This is supposition. It means nothing until DC fesses up to what IP FooCat and others are violating their rights on- this looks close enough for them to bluff their way through this with..):

A quick search of the Delphion IPN (Used to be IBM's patent site, but they merged their operations with Delphion...) for "(bar code) and (network)" produced only 3 hits for patents in 1991:

#4,982,346 - Mall promotion network apparatus and method
#5,029,183 - Packet data communication network
#5,029,034 - Video casette with optical output of information

Closest patent is 4,982,346.

htt p://www.pat ents.ibm.com/details?&pn=US04982346__&show_legal=1 #LEGAL

Abstract:

A computer system automates advertising and promotional campaigns. The computer system includes a magnetic stripe card reader, bar code reader, monitor, printer, keyboard, and touchscreen input device. Software executing on the computer manages the operations of these devices. The system displays advertisements and product or store locator maps, dispenses coupons, accepts product orders, and manages customer surveys. Customers are attracted to the system by promotional sweepstakes, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the advertising and surveys. A frequent shopper campaign also attracts customers to the system.

This does NOT cover scanning a barcode and generating a network event. The patent copy is one of the sillier things I've had the misfortune of seeing- 76(!) pages, mostly of flow charts describing the high-level details of the application. It might be said that this is an applicable patent because of what they're claiming, but what they're claiming is not novel, nor is what they're claiming a specific to the WWW or to the Internet in general.

According to Delphion, the current owner of the patent is Inter-Act Systems, Inc. of Norwalk, Conn. which was a change of hands on June 6, 1997. Inter-Act is still in business, doing the same line of business, mall kiosks. Now,
either they've purchased the rights to this patent, they're a subsidiary of Inter-Act (Not likely), they don't own the rights to this patent and they're bluffing because they found it just like I did and they're using it as a smokescreen, or we're barking up the wrong tree. Which is it? Your guess is as good as mine, but they're not
listed as an assignee to the best of what I can find out.

The next closest is #5,029,183. This describes a patent owned by Symbol that is used for remote, hand-held, bar code scanning units to collect data for a central computer (Like those nifty hand-held units that Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. use for inventory, etc.). In this case, they'd _have_ to have just bought the patent rights on this one. Symbol's NOT going to relinquish such an important
patent (even if it is overbroad and non-unique...).

Either we've got the date wrong or he's mis-applying the first patent mentioned.

If this is the patent, and by some perverse twist of fate, Delphion's site info isn't in lockstep with who is the current assignee of the patent, you're going to find that anything of the sort is in violation of the patent. Of course, I may have missed the patent (There's something buried, not in the abstracts...)- having said this, I'd like to point out that without it being in the abstracts, it's not likely to be a valid use of the patent grant, because they've got to specifically mention what they're patenting there. Furthermore, most of the usages that we see with it that DC's up in arms about isn't really covered by this patent- the usages don't link up with any marketing data except the case of the engines flipping you to Amazon, and that's tenuous too.