Digital Convergence Bites the Dust 118
An anonymous reader writes "On Friday Digital Convergence (DC) 'restructured' and got rid of just about everyone without severance pay.
They are still trying to sell the 'paper' company, the problem will be to find someone stupid enough to buy it!
Some interesting quotes from The Dallas Morning News:
DC speak "some employees in NY were let go"
English: about two remain.
Radio Shack: "We have stock in the stores, and we're continuing to distribute"
English: The CueCats are taking up valuable room in the warehouse, we need to get rid of them.
DC: "The staff has been significantly reduced,"
English: You don't have to take off your shoes to count the people left.
DC: "a number of employees throughout the company have decided to stay on as unpaid consultants."
English: The senior people who have millions of shares are still coming in for a few days.
DC: "Quite frankly, we're even going after new business"
English: Are there any suckers out there who want to buy the company?
" But it looks like those CueCats out there are now definitely freely hackable without threat of a cease and desist. If only the MPAA would go under.
CueCat now open for cracking (Score:1)
Taco, you piece of shit (Score:1)
Re:Schadenfreude (Score:1)
Maybe MS would of left it wideopen if it weren't for us killing NetAppliance and DC (fair enough their businesses models were but crazyness, so is the Xbox thinking about it). Thinking about it, MS is just the same, selling useless crap to million by monopolistic licensing... how the crap did that ever work?
No doubt they blame hackers + reverse engineering. (Score:1)
Re:You may not like them, but it's still a pity... (Score:1)
Nine lives? (Score:1)
Just to let you know... (Score:1)
Re:Free UPC database for use with Cuecats... (Score:1)
It's good to see alternatives.
Re:Privacy (Score:2)
Mark Edwards [mailto]
Proof of Sanity forged upon request
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:2)
If you put your list of books on a web page, your friends will be less likely to buy duplicates for your birthday or christmas. Same with DVDs. Of corse it also means if I want a out of print DVD or book badly enough I might stop by in the middle of the night....
A friend has a list on his PDA, so when we are out at dinner and trying to decide if we should go to a theater for a movie or off to someone's house he can offer specific movies...
A good catalogue is useful for insurance though, if the catalogue doesn't get destroyed in the fire at least.
Schadenfreude (Score:1)
You all know that it is not becoming to have fun at the expense of other peoples distress.
Why don't you all donate your cuecats to the homeless shelter?
---------------------------------------
UNIX isn't dead, it just smells funny...
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:2)
Do you have so few books that you actually know everything you own? Have you never purchased an interesting book twice by mistake? Do you never loan books to friends?
And no one will miss the lying, cheating bastards (Score:2)
I threw away Wired magazine, canceled my subscription and vowed to do the same to anyone who would be so callous as to treat my and my privacy that way.
"anything useful" (Score:4)
Add a plugin to AbiWord/KWord/KSpread/Gnumeric that would put a barcode on the bottom of each printout. Then arrange that scanning that barcode with my cat would auto-launch said office application with the relevant document.
Sounded useful to me, especially if you work for a company that prints all sorts of things out without including the filename in the footer. And even with the filename in the footer it would be quicker and easier just to scan it...
Stuart.
PS You could do the same thing with a web browser to launch at a URL based on a printout of the page.
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:1)
Not suprising. (Score:3)
This was one of the last "boneheaded ideas"(tm) companies that are in the start of their death throws. I do have one thing to thank them for..
I was able to make over 20 keyboard port barcode scanners available free to customers of mine (mod to remove encryption and voila it works for P.O.S. (that's point of sale) software!) saving them hundreds of dollars.
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:1)
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My CueCat is still in the plastic.... (Score:1)
Maybe other companies can learn from this: 1.) If someone comes up with a new and ingenious way to use your product that you never thought about -- you should encourage them (not threaten them with lawsuits). 2.) Don't ever, ever, EVER, listen to the schmucks in the marketing department. They wouldn't know a good idea if it bit them in the ass.
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:1)
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:1)
FP
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:2)
I have thousands of books - I even used to sell books at SF Conventions. I have shelves all over my house, and cardboard boxes packed with books. And yes, I know exactly what I own.
There's no way I could sit and recite them all, but if you give me a title, author and maybe a bit of the plot, I can tell you if I have it or have owned it. How? Very simple - I read every one of them. I spent a few hours inside the cover of each and every one of them. Even most reference books I can nail each and every time. This is coming from somebody who has a hard time quoting accurately from a movie he has seen at least once a week since 1987 (Rocky Horror). I have lousy memory... but I never forget a book.
Do you never loan books to friends?
Sure. But I never record that I do, and I never *demand* that they come back. I just expect it. That's why I call them friends.
Have you never purchased an interesting book twice by mistake?
Only in one field - I own a seriously large chunk of every RPG book published by White Wolf (World of Darkness, aka Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Changling and Wraith). The local comic shop waits a few months and then gets in all the books published in the previous months. As a result, I drop a several hundred dollars and pick 'em all up, and slowly go through them. As a result, I occasionally buy another copy before I've had a chance to read the first. In other cases, they've repackaged a few books into one volume, and I grab it (new title, thicker, etc) without realizing I own all three or so volumes reprinted inside.
--
Evan
Re:*shrug* (Score:3)
I think the primary motivation behind it's hackability is the cost - since it's free, you don't feel bad if you break it. It was also a challange to find something *useful* to do with the thing. Other than my concept of "King of UPC", which I couldn't muster interest in, I don't think anybody came up with anything useful at all.
--
Evan
Re:Not "freely hackable" (Score:1)
Re:"anything useful" (Score:2)
Re:You may not like them, but it's still a pity... (Score:4)
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Re:The death of DC would end the Dotbomb era. (Score:1)
and more hilarious stuff.
Another Banner Move for NBCi (Score:1)
Re:Not "freely hackable" (Score:2)
If bankruptcy is declared, feel free to make them an offer to buy whatever asset you want to control. If you buy it, you can declare it open.
Re:About the leftover CueCats . . . (Score:2)
I was looking for a web site for Interactive Network, and came across This [interactivenetwork.net]... History is repeating itself. They're trying to make something back from their patents too.
Re:Stock up now! (Score:3)
What can be done with a barcode reader? (Score:5)
Unwired world:
Start with a mildly populated database. Consumer goes to grocery store. Scans in each item purchased. Enters name, if necessary. Enters price (and marks if it is a regular price or a sale). Repeat with various grocery stores. Finds the best store to buy all items at, or the best two stores to get certain items from in order to save money.
Wired world:
Same. But check against the entries of other users in the area. Possible alerts to bargins on things that are regularly bought (Pepsi 2 liter, 69 cents, Albertsons, on sale). Also, being able to real-time scan an item in a store to see how good of a deal it is. (Especially good on impulse buying.)
Mind you, of course, it isn't as simple as I just described, and there are the usual disclaimers. But we're not using a barcode scanner for its full potential. It could be a real win for the consumer.
consumers control in a free market. (Score:3)
-russ
DC is dead (Score:1)
And there was much rejoicing.
Well, thank you! (Score:1)
Sheesh.
The return of Holy Grail [slashdot.org] is announced just three days prior, and ONE PERSON gets the bloody reference! What is this world coming to?
Re:Counting? (Score:2)
Didn't you know? DC was running their rinky-dink operation out of a Japanese employee's house. You see, not having to take your shoes off to count the employees left signifies that there's nobody left, so who cares if you go stomping around their office/home, looking for employees to count, with your shoes on.
At least, that's what I've heard. And you?
< tofuhead >
--
Re:consumers control in a free market. (Score:1)
Of course, this is Slashdot, so there's the usual "We hate corporations and they should all die" bias floating around. I just love playing devil's advocate though
And NO I'm not a karma whore. As a matter of fact, I've upset a few people over the past few days and lost four karma points and gained none. Not that I care in the grand scheme of things, but sometimes it's just the way it's done... like 5 days after a post, for revenge... but screw it, you only get to live once, and I'm glad to stir the pot every once in a while...
Re:*shrug* (Score:2)
I dunno. I suppose I don't care about Digital Convergance at all, let em bite the dust. But everyone around here feels the same way about Microsoft, and I guess I'm more concerned about that attitude more than anything... cause for the time being, I guess we all kinda need MS in the economy and in the computer world. When they screw up, then I'll be indifferent about their passing, as well. (However, I get the feeling Slashdot won't be outliving MS... and there will be no one here to do the dance of joy then...)
*shrug* (Score:4)
Now are *you* gonna feed their kids and pay their rent?
I mean, not that they didn't do some assinine things as a company, but I'd like to see a company like that reform, rather than bite the dust and leave even more people unemployed. Besides, it's not like CueCat was an entirely USELESS technology... apparently you people thought it was good enough to try and hack.
I'm not necessarily mourning their death, but I think it's a bit tasteless and uncouth to be dancing on their ashes, eh?
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:2)
Why lug around a desktop system for inventory when you can plug the scanner into a notebook or a Palm? When we do store inventory, the barcodes get scanned into Notepad running on a notebook. The file is then saved and read into the POS system to update inventory and check for discrepancies.
(It'd be easier still if the scan guns could be plugged into a Palm instead...those are much smaller. Of course, there are also the Symbol SPT 1500 [symbol.com] and CSM 150 [symbol.com] if you plan on doing lots of Palm scanning...)
Re:Why are they still hiring? (Score:3)
After that, the people responsible for sacking the webmaster were themselves sacked.
Usefull Cuekitties (Score:1)
I was under the impression that people were using it to inventory their books and CDs...? I never did myself, but the idea is appealing. Perhaps that's how DC can rise from the ashes: Inventory Cat!
Is "King of the UPC" anything like Barcode Battler?
Re:*shrug* (Score:2)
Now come one now. What exactly are you trying to say here?
Why should anyone here feel sorry for them? They are (were) a business, out to make money. They didn't. That's life.
If I start a business and it fails, will *you* feed my children? Why?
Does having a business fail give those people the right to recieve money and sympathy from anyone else?
Why should I feel sorry for these people who took a risk, and could have ended up very rich, but didn't? Do they deserve more sympathy than a single parent flipping burgers trying to get by?
>I'm not necessarily mourning their death, but I think it's a bit tasteless and uncouth to be
>dancing on their ashes, eh?
Why? Do words hurt them?
Look, they did it to themselves. No-body forced them to work there. They took a risk which could
have made a fortune but didn't. A lot of people here think they had a stupid business plan
even *before* they went under (read the earlier slashdot articles).
IMHO, they were greedy people, who took a risk with a stupid idea and failed.
Is it not better to examine and critize their actions to help prevent others in the future
making similar mistakes?
Re:Not "freely hackable" (Score:1)
Or maybe I'm just paranoid - I have a growing history of angering stupid people and large companies - perhaps I should start a gallery of C&D letters I've received..
*shakes his head* Only in America...
800,000,000- point taken- ludicrous either way. (Score:1)
The death of DC would end the Dotbomb era. (Score:5)
I really thought if anyone had a shot at revolutionizing the way that advertisers and media exploit consumer data, it was DigitalConvergence.
What continues to amaze me about DigitalConvergence is the sheer enormity of it. The scale of the undertaking, the breadth and scope of it all, it dwarfs some of the larger dotbombs of record. If/when it actually completely explodes, it seems like it would signal the definitive end-of-the-dotbomb-era...
A company which continues to incur enormous costs in the manufacturing and distribution of their devices (what might 10,000,000+ CueCats cost to build and ship to retailers? who can imagine?) and seems to have no hope of profitability, ever...
A management team populated by players from Time Warner, AT&T, GE, Disney, Barings, etc.
A CEO (who owns 50% of the company) who seems pathologically given to making unfathomably exaggerated marketing claims, including, "We think we're the fourth evolution of computing. A cat can do everything a mouse can't!" , and "It's a torrid love affair I'm having with the power to mold not only an industry, but also the mind-set of America's consumers..." (As an aside, this man should be forced to eat his every press release and media clipping as punishment for this sort of hubris...).
In his prior career hosting a tv show called "NetTalkLive", he claimed, "Our show reaches into 802,000,000 million homes each week..." - Yes, roughly 1/6th of the world population is tuning in to watch an informercial (although conveniently, the Nielsen ratings system didn't track shows like NetTalkLive that run during the dead-zone of infomercial hours on d-grade & public television channels...)
Other gestures of indulgence include spending a ton of money in decorating the offices of DigitalConvergence to be "feng-shui" compliant [bcentral.com] ("...the building should face in a direction that is positive for the company's owner or chief executive...", plants and water are added to the environs because "....plants represent growth and water represents money..." (well I guess they've been smoking the plants and lighting the water on fire...).
I look forward to the case studies on this corporation. I suspect that we'll see lots of people conclude, "It probably doesn't make good business sense to entrust hundreds of millions of dollars to people who claim to be marketing-geniuses, and yet somehow fail to focus on that most basic of marketing fundamentals, determining the needs of the consumer."
Other interesting reading material, for those concerned....
a funny "Dallas Observer" article [dallasobserver.com] and a not quite as funny but still very interesting article from "Editor and Publisher" online [editorandpublisher.com].
"If you build it, they will laugh."
The unprivileged (Score:1)
We haven't seen any of these nice electronic freebies. Is that a good thing?
You may not like them, but it's still a pity... (Score:2)
What about (old) products w/o URLS? (Score:1)
Sure, scanning the barcode is dumb if there's an URL on the package. What I found intriguing was the fact that could scan all sorts of CDs and books I bought before everything had an URL on it, and find a website. Barcode scanners are backwards-compatible with my entire CD collection. I think that was the only really clever part of the whole CueCat concept.
Still, the concept was more "interesting" than "useful", it's not enough to drive a sucessful business, and DC blew the implementation anyway. DC's implosion is no great loss.
"If only the MPAA would go under..." (Score:1)
Meditation anyone?
Hmmmmmmmmmm Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. . . . . .
USB? (Score:1)
Aww... (Score:4)
And I just saw my first cue-whatever tv ad! (Score:1)
Actually... (Score:5)
You're correct that this doesn't change the legal situation proper. However, the legal position proper was never the problem. Legally the little felines are and have always been freely hackable. The problem was simply the threat of big bad company with presumably deep pockets sicking the landsharks on individual hackers that couldn't afford to defend themselves, merits (or lack thereof) of the case be damned. The troubles at DC mean that threat just lost all credibility - they obviously are not in a position to engage in such tactics.
Sure, it's possible some other big bad company with deep pockets and no ethics could come along and buy the property and turn around and start in on the same route, but it surely is very unlikely. The "property" is obviously not worth the trouble, and even stuffed shirts that didn't understand that before will now when they see how much good it did DC.
As another poster pointed out, there are already at least two such databases. Your objection that they don't include the elements of DCs intended setup that most of us found objectionable in the first place doesn't seem like any big deal to me. There's no need to buy anything from DC. Their copyright on the windows only spyware they distributed with the cuecats is not needed or even desireable, as cross platform Free Software programs that perform as desired and don't spy on the user are available.
It'll most likely be auctioned off to the highest bidder, before or after the bankruptcy declaration. They can expect to be spammed and junk mailed and telemarketed out of their minds. It sucks, but really, wtf did they expect when they happily traded off their privacy to DC in exchange for a little promised convenience?
"That old saw about the early bird just goes to show that the worm should have stayed in bed."
Re:And no one will miss the lying, cheating bastar (Score:1)
Re:Stock up now! (Score:1)
Unreal... (Score:2)
As for the workers, yeah, it sucks to have lost a job, but they should've seen this coming the minute they found out what sort of company they got hired by, and started looking for a job right then. If they had even the slightest illusion of job security at a company that advertisers didn't give a damn about and whose only business was giving away hardware that appealed to a crowd of hackers, then... well, I suppose numbnuts like them made the company the great big hunk o' crap that it was.
Plus, I hate'em for never offering the cuecats in Canada :)
---
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:1)
About the leftover CueCats . . . (Score:1)
Their whole distribution scheme hinged on the idea that they would maintain a database of peoples' scanning habits, gain revenue from that, and then be able to pay their distributors with that money. Now there is not income. There will soon be no database. Are they going to sell the user info database outright (highly likely), or are they going to sell the whole company, or perhaps both?
They (literally) can't afford to have piles of CueCats lying around. You have to have some place to put them. Storage is expensive. Even if you own the building, you still have to pay property taxes. I think we'll be seeing some desperate attempts to get rid of them . .
BTW, does anyone else have one of the USB models? If so, does it scan more slowly for you, too, than the PS/2 model?
Re:dammit (Score:1)
This is one way I used to have fun with big companies, and see who sold what. I would sign up for different things with different variations of my name, and watch the name space on the resulting junk (snail) mail.
For instance, Conde Nast Publishing(I had a subscription to Details back when they had great feature journalism) will sell your name to porno junk mailers -- *after* you let your subscription lapse. I thought that was cute. It was really disturbing pr0n, too, rape fantasies and such. And I knew it was Conde Nast, since I subscribed to Details as Skippy E-------, which was a high school nickname I had.
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:2)
--
Re:Not "freely hackable" (Score:2)
Re:Not "freely hackable" (Score:2)
Re:DC is not dead (Score:1)
Apparently you're a little naive when it comes to dot-coms. Taco WAS telling the truth about the state of the company -- it's toasted. Oh sure, he could have used misleading media-speech and said "Oh yes, they're still going strong, they've just suffered a little setback and are just going through 'restructuring' and 'downsizing.' Wink wink." But DC is just another one of those useless wastes of money known as "Internet Dot-Coms," and when they have to go through a restructuring like this, it's over. They're gone. The idea of them somehow rising from the ashes better, faster, stronger is pretty laughable.
Ugh... (Score:1)
+++
Why are they still hiring? (Score:2)
Re:Why are they still hiring? (Score:2)
After that, the people responsible for sacking the webmaster were themselves sacked.
Then they all went down to the Piggly-Wiggly and got jobs sacking groceries.
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:1)
I could see it for retrieving the play list, if your application doesn't read the information from the CD to retrieve it.
The other use is an inventory of equiptment, for things like homeowners insurance. Or you can do inventory for a company. The only problem would be carrying around the desktop, monitor, UPS, tape drive, speakers when using the barcode scanner.
Re:USB? (Score:2)
And now I have it plugged into my Mac.
/Brian
They Missed Their Opportunity (Score:1)
Even those that despised the ad-oriented application loved the neato device. Taken in vacuo, the device has a lot of utility, and, well, "coolness quotient." Digital Convergence had a wonderful opportunity to access a large pool of interest, programmer support, and continued (free) innovation. For example, if they merely supported, packaged and sold an open-source do-it-yourself inventory system, they could make a mint. Maybe not something as huge as their dreams, but steady income.
entertaining? (Score:1)
Re:About the leftover CueCats . . . (Score:1)
Good Riddance (Score:3)
Privacy (Score:1)
Re:*shrug* (Score:3)
__
It wasn't the barcode scanners... (Score:1)
Now it all makes sense. It wasn't the free barcode scanners that took this half-wit company down, it was ColdFusion!
ColdFusion haiku:
It has no functions
Complex regexps crash it hard
Truly a sick joke
"Sweet creeping zombie Jesus!"
Re:Why did they use hardware at all? (Score:1)
e.g. 219863456 = 13.26.217.160
Like this was a surprize... (Score:4)
I actually brainstormed for a while trying to come up with something I could do with one that would make it entertaining to use... Nothing.
-- Book inventory? Why? Was I running a library?
-- A quick way to enter commands: I had it hooked up to a shell and printed out bar codes so I could scan in longer commands. Problem is, the longer the command, the less often you use it. Therefore, useless.
-- Fun for a child with some kind of game? Once again, annoying since you have to rescan things slowly occasionally.
So in short, the original reason of having it was stupid, and I couldn't come up with any useful alternate ways of using it.
But on a different note, have they already had there IPO?
Are you guys really this clueless? (Score:1)
Say I scan in my CDs. I later (somehow) am told that band X (or author X) is on tour near me. How cool is that, I wouldn't have known otherwise! I really don't read the paper or listen to non-NPR radio, so I don't know these things. The last couple of concerts and book signings I went to were due to pure luck, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. DC got greedy, which if done incorrectly or improperly is a mortal sin for a company (M$ excluded)
There were useful uses. They just refused to see them. And like someone else said, making customers happy is one of the big rules of capitalism.
Re:Taco, you piece of sh!t (Score:2)
The question is (Score:1)
Re:Not "freely hackable" (Score:1)
Is corporatestupidity.com taken? Really, I would love to see a website like this.....
Jaysyn
Re:Free hardware (Score:1)
Meanwhile, I knew they were in trouble the moment I received an e-mail begging me (and others) to install their spyware drivers, and if we did, we'd be entered into a drawing for $100... Woohoo! Yay! Yowzah! My thimble runneth over!
Re:Stock up now! (Score:1)
would you happen to be the CEO of DC: stating that everyone should pick up these handy devices because of your savvy understanding of a market in which we would value such garbage?
I dont know about everyone else - but I got my sue cat for free - and this guy is out paying for all 17+ of his.
A CueCat. (Score:1)
God forbid I should have to pumch in a url!
--------
No severance pay either. (Score:1)
dammit (Score:3)
You NEVER give out your real name and address, unless you WANT to receive something (as if you ordered something)
By giving out your name and address, you're essentially asking for the name to get distributed around in mailing groups.
For example, I signed up once with BMG with a fake name at my house. Only a few weeks later, that imaginary person supposedly won $10 million dollars from Publisher's Clearing House.
And this was BEFORE the internet became popular.
MPAA (Score:1)
Re:dammit (Score:3)
Thankfully, I have more important things to do with my time than pursue these endevours, but There are people who do these sorts of things (for a living maybe...).
--CTH
---
Schadenfreude (Score:2)
Re:About the leftover CueCats . . . (Score:2)
Maybe 'Tandy' (RadioShack) stock them? Not sure.
Re:About the leftover CueCats . . . (Score:3)
I'm guessing it would cost too much in shipping to get rid of them like before, they may just go to landfill, it happens with companies quite often apparently, Palm were contemplating the same thing a few weeks ago with their excess inventories, they can't reduce prices and floor the market for their new models and take the company down the drain with it. So they just do the easiest thing, write the inventory off and destroy it, thereby preserving the current market for their goods.
I'm guessing archaeologists in a few hundred years time will find hundreds of these odd plastic 'probe' type things (right next to the pets.com puppets) and try and workout what the hell they were for.
It seems that promotion on NBC and the international distribution was the last "big push" for DC, if that didn't work, nothing will type of thing.
I received a USB cat last week here in the UK, it was quite slow and it was killing the i/o on my notebook, I presume it was something to do with power constraints, but they don't seem to be high quality.
I'm planning to print some barcodes out and do an inventory of my CD's, and maybe other stuff in the house "when I get round to it" (tm).
Thanks for the free scanner... sorry about the company (well?), it's a shame for the people who have lost their jobs, however you really need a reality check if you think joining a company will make you an IPO millionaire within months, it couldn't last indefinitely, and it couldn't be for everyone.
Just goes to show you really could smoke dope and construct business models in 1999, I guess it didn't look so preposterous back then either since everybody was wearing rose tinted glasses, it's surprising to see the high profile companies who invested in DC, it seems they were giving money out hand over fist to get a piece of the IPO pie.
Stock up now! (Score:3)
damn... (Score:1)
All your base are belong to XO
http://mi-net.dynup.net/
http://blackmagik.dynup.net/
Re:DC is dead (Score:2)
Why did they use hardware at all? (Score:2)
This would let *more* people use the service from anywhere with almost no capital outlay. The only disadvantage of this plan is that Bill Gates would 0wn you, but that's pretty much true already.
Re:Like this was a surprize... (Score:2)
Re:Not "freely hackable" (Score:2)
I didn't ask, "Who's going to maintain a database of UPC codes," I asked, "Who's going to maintain the database of translations of UPC codes, ISBN codes, and specially paid-for :CueCat codes into URLs?" There's a major difference there.
Care to rub those two brain cells together again and try to come up with another spark of enlightenment?
Re:Why are they still hiring? (Score:3)
They're not hiring, but that hasn't been updated on the website yet because they just sacked the webmaster.
Not "freely hackable" (Score:5)
No, even if DC goes under, its copyrights and patents may be assigned first. You'd be, ethically and legally, in the same position if you hacked the Cat now, the day after the company folds, or the day it came out. The only thing that would make it "freely hackable" would be if DC released all of its interests into the public domain.
Now, that would be an interesting thing to consider. Sure, all that tech would now be freely hackable. Who's going to maintain the database? That's the expense that probably is the biggest drain on the company aside from manufacturing, and it'd be one hell of a thing to try to open-source. It's the kind of thing that would only get done if some big company felt like paying a Linus Torvalds or Larry Wall to "do what you want with the corpse of DC."
Here's a question: what's going to happen to the user info of all the registered users who happily told DC their names and addresses and then went and scanned the barcodes of various commercial products?
Re:Free UPC database for use with Cuecats... (Score:4)