4 ms·

So basically "you broke the law, so we'll break the law"?

kees99 9y ago
Unfortunately, this sort of attitude is not unheard of among proprietary software vendors - see for example FTDI bricking your hardware if they think it's counterfeit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8493849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8493849
- IntronExon 9y ago
  Wouldn’t that be downright illegal? Moreover, someone bricking my hardware would inspire me to forcefully return said “brick” to them, through their nearest window.
  - draugadrotten 9y ago
    Wouldn’t that be downright illegal? Moreover, someone breaking my windows would inspire me to forcefully discuss said behaviour with them, with their nearest brick.
    - IntronExon 9y ago
      Totally illegal, but while I would feel like tossing something through their window, I would never do it. If only this company had as much of a moral compass!
- alyandon 9y ago
  And as a side effect to that story - I recently needed to purchase a USB to RS232 adapter to program a router and I went explicitly out of my way to make sure the adapter I purchased didn't use an FTDI chip. FTDI is a name I won't be forgetting anytime soon.
- mariuolo 9y ago
  > FTDI bricking your hardware if they think it's counterfeit It's not quite the same thing. Their driver does things that work with the original hardware. If a different chip uses the same USB ID, they're asking for trouble. (of course good faith is unlikely in this case)
arkades 9y ago
Actually, it’s “we suspect you may have broken the law, so we’ll break the law.” A distinction no one seems to be hammering on, but that I think makes what they did much, much worse.
dx034 9y ago
Not even sure if users broke the law. Just using a 3rd party cracked software doesn't necessarily violate laws (at least no criminal offence). The distributors and crackers clearly violated laws but any user with a cracked serial number was targeted. That also included people who might've received the number against payment from someone else and thought they had a genuine copy.

Unfortunately, this sort of attitude is not unheard of among proprietary software vendors - see for example FTDI bricking your hardware if they think it's counterfeit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8493849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8493849

IntronExon 9y ago
Wouldn’t that be downright illegal? Moreover, someone bricking my hardware would inspire me to forcefully return said “brick” to them, through their nearest window.
- draugadrotten 9y ago
  Wouldn’t that be downright illegal? Moreover, someone breaking my windows would inspire me to forcefully discuss said behaviour with them, with their nearest brick.
  - IntronExon 9y ago
    Totally illegal, but while I would feel like tossing something through their window, I would never do it. If only this company had as much of a moral compass!
alyandon 9y ago
And as a side effect to that story - I recently needed to purchase a USB to RS232 adapter to program a router and I went explicitly out of my way to make sure the adapter I purchased didn't use an FTDI chip. FTDI is a name I won't be forgetting anytime soon.
mariuolo 9y ago
> FTDI bricking your hardware if they think it's counterfeit It's not quite the same thing. Their driver does things that work with the original hardware. If a different chip uses the same USB ID, they're asking for trouble. (of course good faith is unlikely in this case)

arkades 9y ago

Actually, it’s “we suspect you may have broken the law, so we’ll break the law.” A distinction no one seems to be hammering on, but that I think makes what they did much, much worse.

dx034 9y ago

Not even sure if users broke the law. Just using a 3rd party cracked software doesn't necessarily violate laws (at least no criminal offence). The distributors and crackers clearly violated laws but any user with a cracked serial number was targeted. That also included people who might've received the number against payment from someone else and thought they had a genuine copy.