NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Chip manufacturer FTDI accused of bricking counterfeits -- my call to their engineer
Chip manufacturer FTDI accused of bricking counterfeits -- my call to
their engineer
https://plus.google.com/+LaurenWeinstein/posts/JuWxAEk7xDR (This post on Google+)
I just spoke by phone to a senior engineer ("Bob") at FTDI U.S.A.
regarding reports of counterfeit FT232 chips being bricked by a new
version of a driver recently released by FTDI (See: Hacker News:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8493849). I am sorry to report
that he became extremely defensive and refused to speak further when I
asked if this was a purposeful act on the company's part. He told me
to read their license agreement and that he couldn't say more. I noted
to him that this left the definite impression that we were talking
about a purposeful act -- after all, most users of hardware never see
the license agreements for embedded chips and don't know if they are
counterfeit or not. At that point he became flustered, said he would
not speak further, and said all queries had to go to their UK
headquarters. Draw your own conclusions, folks.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
I am a consultant to Google -- I speak only for myself, not for them.
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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