September 15, 2000: Posted working page and source code.
You can submit bacodes to the deBarcode web site here.
NOTICE: Use of this link may be covered under U.S. Patent 6,108,656, (August 22, 2000) owned by Inventors: Durst; Robert T. (Fort Myers, FL); Hunter; Kevin (Fort Myers, FL) Assignee: NeoMedia Technologies, Inc. (Fort Myers, FL)
September 21, 2000: Posted Title 39, Sec. 3009 of the United States Code
September 29th, 2000: It's official! I got my nastygram from Kenyon and Kenyon today.
Ocotober 10th, 200: Quote Added
You simply ... disobey.Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely.
But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom.
I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King . . . who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam.
In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.
--- from a Speech by Charlton Heston at Harvard, "Winning The Cultural War"
My name is Glenn Powers. I live at 10116 Bull Valley Road, Woodstock, IL 60098. I recently (September 2000) received a package via the United States Postal Service which contained a device refered to as a "CueCat" reader.
This package was in violation of Title 39, Sec. 3009 of the United States Code and constitutes an unfair method of competition and an unfair trade practice in violation of section 45(a)(1) of title 15, as it was not a conspicuously marked free sample nor did it have "attached to it a clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender."
I have seen fit to create this page, which accepts input from a CueCat reader and returns the bar code type and bar code data. The source code does not list the original author. If he me, I'll gladly credit him.
Additionally, I have reported this incident to U.S. Postal Inspection Service. If you have received a CueCat via the mail which was not clearly marked as a free sample and did not have "attached to it a clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender," I urge you to report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can use their Online Mail Fraud Complaint Form.
The "Postal Inspectors base mail fraud investigations on the number, substance and pattern of complaints received from the public." So, the more people who complain, the more likely this matter will receive the attention of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a federal law enforcement agency.
Title 39, Sec. 3009 of the United States Code Quoted from http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/39/3009.text.html
(a) Except for (1) free samples clearly and conspicuously marked as such, and (2) merchandise mailed by a charitable organization soliciting contributions, the mailing of unordered merchandise or of communications prohibited by subsection (c) of this section constitutes an unfair method of competition and an unfair trade practice in violation of section 45(a)(1) of title 15.
(b) Any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, may be treated as a gift by the recipient, who shall have the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender. All such merchandise shall have attached to it a clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender.
(c) No mailer of any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, shall mail to any recipient of such merchandise a bill for such merchandise or any dunning communications.
(d) For the purposes of this section, ''unordered merchandise'' means merchandise mailed without the prior expressed request or consent of the recipient.