The end-user rarely use knowningly a FTDI chip or driver. They are part of a larger product that he payed for. An extreme example would be Monsanto selling gene

The end-user rarely use knowningly a FTDI chip or driver. They are part of a larger product that he payed for. An extreme example would be Monsanto selling genetically modified corn and potato seeds. Once they find counterfeit corn seeds, they alter their potato seeds so that when consumed with counterfeit corn seeds they make you vomit. You visit a restaurant, order a salad and since “you don't have license to consume the corn” you end up in the bathroom. :) There is a free-software FTDI driver[1]. What this driver doesn't do, is to destroy or send random data to a chip it doesn't recognize as original. [1] http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/usb/serial http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.g...