DigitalConvergence's lawyers have sent ``notification of infringement'' letters to several gadget-happy techies who aim to use the CueCat for things such as inventorying book or CD collections, tracking packages or simply making them usable on the Linux operating system. DigitalConvergence officials . . .
DigitalConvergence's lawyers have sent ``notification of infringement'' letters to several gadget-happy techies who aim to use the CueCat for things such as inventorying book or CD collections, tracking packages or simply making them usable on the Linux operating system. DigitalConvergence officials were surprised at the rabid interest, given that cheap bar-code scanners were already on the market. The techies say they are drawn to the CueCat because it's so easy to get, free and powerful yet relatively simple to dissect.

The problem for DigitalConvergence is that these enterprising hobbyists would just as soon bypass DigitalConvergence's marketing database, which is how the company plans to profit from the gadgets, on which it has spent about $100 million. DigitalConvergence envisions that product makers will eventually pay the company to have their products' bar codes trigger a special Web site, or that they will pay to target advertisements to CueCat users based on demographic groupings or other factors.