[chbot] Heard about the FTDI caper?

[Mark Beckett]

I've been getting emails from my overseas contacts for the few days.

This is some other info regarding what was a deliberate and possibly 
illegal move by FTDI.
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/ftdi-driver-kills-fake-ftdi-ft232/msg535270/#msg535270

    I did find this one which shows the internals of both genuine and
    non-genuine which is interesting.
    http://zeptobars.ru/en/read/FTDI-FT232RL-real-vs-fake-supereal
     
     
    My view is FTDI have overstepped the mark by making them non
    functional, regardless of the copyright/you're using our driver.
    The end-user probably has no idea of what is inside the device they
    just brought.
     
    FTDI should have detected the device as not genuine and refused to
    load the driver for it.
    The customer would then have returned the product to the supplier,
    and the corrective action could then take place.
     
    This 'fix' has probably signed the end for FTDI, given that other
    products that are available, and that their product is not cheap to
    start with.
    MS are equally to blame since they have deployed a driver that
    knowing renders devices useless that were working and are not theirs
    to mess with.
    By changing the device, it no longer works on other OS's, which is
    well beyond their software agreements no matter how you read their EULA.
    Hopefully someone decides to sue them, maybe someone who already
    dislikes them and has big pockets ....
     
    In a twist of irony, it seems the FTDI software (FT_prog) will
    happily talk to the non-genuine device to write the VID/PID, and I
    have a copy of the older version if anyone gets trapped.

While Volker may think he's quite safe using Linux, the issue is if the 
device was connected to a windows box with the new drivers, it won't 
work on his linux box now, since the PID has been set to zero.

I have some sympathy for FTDI, but using Microsoft to deliberately reset 
the PID has gone too far, it should have simply refused to talk to the 
device.
And if you read some of the various blogs, it was FTDI that pulled it, 
most likely because of the backlash/fallout that was coming.

It shouldn't affect any Arduino UNO or true clone as they use an Atmel 
8U2 or 16U2 to interface to the USB.
Since there are some who suggest not to use 'cheap chinese knock-offs' 
they won't have to worry either.... :-)

Mark


Mark Atherton wrote:
> Another gem from Julian.
>
> ... and there could be quite some fallout with the Arduino community.
>
> I am still dwelling on the consequences of FTDI's actions.
>
> -mark
>
>
>
>> Subject: Heard about the FTDI caper?
>> To: Mark Atherton <markaren1 at xtra.co.nz>
>>
>> <http://brainwagon.org/2014/10/24/ftdi-gate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainwagon+%28brainwagon%29>http://brainwagon.org/2014/10/24/ftdi-gate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainwagon+%28brainwagon%29 
>>
>>
>> Hi Mark
>>
>> Just read about this...J
>
>
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