“We’re not targeting end users, we’re just actively damaging their equipment to teach them a lesson.”
I sincerely hope whoever is running their PR response, and whoever thought this was a good idea, get fired and blackballed. Because this is all just too stupid.
Yeah…when I first saw this I posted calling them a bunch of a**holes. I also suggested they use personal shoppers to locate products with fake chips in them in a way that would not potentially cause millions of dollars in damages and downtime.
When China makes all the electronics, you can’t be sure of any chip in any of your electronics. It might all be “counterfeit” or include a software or even a hardware style bug (the spying type) in it.
I’m not really sure what the problem is here. FTDI spent the time to write the driver, and wants to ensure it is only used with their products. Other manufacturers (illegally, btw) use their VID/PID, and the driver reconfigures the chip so it cannot be used by FTDI drivers. It doesn’t “damage” anything, contrary to the alarmist explosion GIF HaD decided to use to get more clicks. If the clone manufacturers wanted to spend the time to write drivers, reconfiguring the PID would be trivial.
Their driver agreement even warns of this!
. Use of the Software as a driver for, or installation of the Software onto, a component that is not a Genuine FTDI Component, including without limitation counterfeit components, MAY IRRETRIEVABLY DAMAGE THAT COMPONENT. It is the Licensee’s responsibility to make sure that all chips it installs the Software on, or uses the Software as a driver for, are Genuine FTDI Components
People should be contacting manufacturers and demanding refunds due to being sold illegal products that have failed.
Why exactly is this a problem? (besides I want cheap stuff entitlement attitudes)
@Tim_Elmore What happens when people think they are using a perfectly legitimate product made from perfectly legitimate components and then their product suddenly stops working and they potentially have downtime at work leading to thousands or millions of dollars worth of lost income? A bunch of people will be taking FTDI to court over this. A person does not have to intend to buy a knockoff to get a knockoff. China is pro at counterfeiting and replacing shipments before shipping overseas.
@NathanielStenzel Then they should have bought from a genuine vendor. They’d be in the same position if the FTDI driver simply stopped itself from loading, since the counterfeiters haven’t provided a driver. Again - this isn’t “destroying” anything, you can reset the VID/PID with any WinXP or Linux box. Boot from a liveUSB flashdrive if you want.
Its a bit like saying “what if people think they’re using perfectly legitimate software but really they bought it from a pirating vendor and then antipiracy features lock it down?”
Buy genuine. Don’t buy from “china”, or pay the price. Done deal.
Tim, if this becomes common practice, where do you draw the line? Regardless of whether or not people have infringed on their IP, it is not legal to physically and intentionally render an end user’s hardware useless.
Sure, do what you want software side. We can’t tell you what to do with your driver. But discreetly pushing an update that physically changes hardware? Wrong, every way I see it.
Can you say with utmost confidence that every single one of the hardware you’ve ever bought have no questionable components in them? A mouse? Webcam?
@Tim_Elmore Did you not read my post? You can try to buy something from a genuine vendor and still end up with a counterfeit. There is rebranded boards too. You would have to track every FTDI chip from the FTDI plant through multiple factories to your door to ensure you do not get a fake chip. Nobody has the resources to ensure you do not get a fake chip. Not even if all the places involved are legit. A bribed truck driver or a replaced shipping container is all it takes to get fakes on the market.
The very definition of a genuine vendor is that they are authorized by the manufacturer to sell the products, and the supply chain is controlled. It is not possible to buy clones from a genuine vendor that is holding up their end of the deal. If the vendor’s staff are accepting bribes, that’s on the vendor - same goes for software!
@Tim_Elmore google “fake sd cards”. As I recall, a few years ago SanDisk had a batch of fake SD cards mixed in with their legitimate product in their own plant. I might be recalling it wrong, but I think that is what happened in that case.
@Eugene_Lee draw the line at anything that is reversible. The PID can be reset by any Linux computer.
Do I know that all products I own have genuine FTDI? Nope. Would I be upset if one stopped working? Yup, but not upset with FTDI. Upset with the vendor that sold me a fake.
Manufacturers in China are probably going to fix this in the coming weeks. So this achieves nothing in the long run. It only serves to punish anyone who has knowingly or unknowingly purchased a board with a fake chip. It ruins their reputation and does not make them revenue in any way.
Most people, me included didn’t even know that there were fake ICs. We buy a product and logically, we choose one that is within our budget. Sometimes it’s the only one available. Sure it’s the vendors fault, go after them with lawyers. But punishing customers who have already bought them changes nothing and it says a lot about their ethics over there at FTDI. “Hey we’ve already lost out on the sale, let’s go and screw everyone over anyway”.
@Eugene_Lee , your argument is basically “I’m poor/cheap, so stealing is ok”.
If you buy a stolen phone from Craigslist and the police track it to your house, they have every right to take it back from you. At least FTDI is letting you keep the useless chip in this case, and reprogram it and write drivers for it if you so choose. You bought chips with no drivers, you were using the chips with stolen drivers and now you are screaming at the owner of the drivers because they took them back.
Most of these “vendors” are eBay sellers in China. Lawyers aren’t much good there. If someone buys parts from shady sources and does not make proper screening they can blame only the source, and ultimately themselves.
@Tim_Elmore So if you go to the store, but someone walked into the store with counterfeit product and replaced what was on the shelf right before you got there and you buy the counterfeit, you are a thief? Well, if you insist you are then you are, but I would not recommend calling anyone else a thief.
@NathanielStenzel That’s not how this works. That’s not how ANY of this works. There is no third party switching out genuine FTDI chips for fakes. It’s like walking into Chinatown and buying a Folex or a pair of FOakleys, then getting upset when you find out they’re fake.
Give me an example of an authorized reseller selling counterfeit FTDI chips and I’ll concede - as for right now you’re operating in hypothetical while I’m operating in reality - and it makes you look like you just want to get something for nothing (which sounds an awful lot like stealing to me).
BTW prolific does the same thing, except triggers BSODs. I’d MUCH rather have a PID rewrite than a BSOD, I don’t know about you.
@Eugene_Lee@NathanielStenzel Let me ask you this: Should the FTDI driver be required to work with a counterfeit chip?
If yes, why? Why is FTDI required to support piracy?
If no, then why the outrage? How is what they’re doing any different from simply not loading the driver? (by the way, their whole ability to detect counterfeit relies on the device accepting the PID change, so it would be difficult to detect counterfeits any other way)
What FTDI did is TRIVIALLY reversible - less than 10 minutes.