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> I ask again: In what alternate reality In that alternative reality where, for example, mobile phone carriers are required to allow 911 calls even if your acc

> I ask again: In what alternate reality In that alternative reality where, for example, mobile phone carriers are required to allow 911 calls even if your account is otherwise locked because you fraudulently paid with someone else's credit card.

robomartin 6y ago
I can play that game too. The fakes are so bad there is no telling if you are going to be able to reach 911 or, if you do, they don't report correct GPS coordinates. 9.2% of the people who call 911 never get through and 3.05% die. Even NADCAR races have a limited number of laps for a reason. We can go around and around this silly pile of hypothetical cases and lose complete sight of the fact that the root cause of the problem is intellectual property theft at a massive scale and that this has serious consequences. The FTDI issue is but a rounding error in this massive global mess. Let's not blame the victim. That is not what a fair society does.
- jstanley 6y ago
  In this entire thread, you seem to be misinterpreting "fake chips are bad, but FTDI shouldn't brick them on purpose" as "fake chips are good, and FTDI is bad". That is why you are struggling to understand what everyone else is saying.
  - foldr 6y ago
    No, I think his point is that fake chips win by default if nothing can be done to disincentivize their manufacture and use. Law enforcement isn't cracking down on fake chips. So what else is FTDI to do if they're to survive as a business? You are fixated on what's best for the consumer in the short term, but the long term consequence of that could be that FTDI goes out of business and can't support any chips, fake or not.
    - sokoloff 6y ago
      I have no problem with FTDI making their Windows driver not work with clone devices, but leaving that device undamaged and working once removed and plugged into a different machine. That is a reasonable action and would be enough to cause at least one more round of cat and mouse with the clone makers, putting a massive dent into their economics. If they’d done that, it might have given FTDI a positive reputation (like the top brands of Taiwanese capacitors) instead of this self-inflicted punch-in-the-face. I’m just a hobbyist (50-100 boards/year) and so don’t matter to FTDI economics, but CH340s go in my devices now because I don’t trust FTDI at all.
      - foldr 6y ago
        You don't have to like it. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it isn't ok for FTDI to do it, or that it's a bad business decision for them.
        sokoloff 6y ago
        It seems that FTDI might agree it was a bad business decision, given they reversed their bricking driver in favor of one which returned “NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND!” as output (which is totally fair play, IMO.)

robomartin 6y ago

I can play that game too. The fakes are so bad there is no telling if you are going to be able to reach 911 or, if you do, they don't report correct GPS coordinates. 9.2% of the people who call 911 never get through and 3.05% die. Even NADCAR races have a limited number of laps for a reason. We can go around and around this silly pile of hypothetical cases and lose complete sight of the fact that the root cause of the problem is intellectual property theft at a massive scale and that this has serious consequences. The FTDI issue is but a rounding error in this massive global mess. Let's not blame the victim. That is not what a fair society does.

jstanley 6y ago
In this entire thread, you seem to be misinterpreting "fake chips are bad, but FTDI shouldn't brick them on purpose" as "fake chips are good, and FTDI is bad". That is why you are struggling to understand what everyone else is saying.
- foldr 6y ago
  No, I think his point is that fake chips win by default if nothing can be done to disincentivize their manufacture and use. Law enforcement isn't cracking down on fake chips. So what else is FTDI to do if they're to survive as a business? You are fixated on what's best for the consumer in the short term, but the long term consequence of that could be that FTDI goes out of business and can't support any chips, fake or not.
  - sokoloff 6y ago
    I have no problem with FTDI making their Windows driver not work with clone devices, but leaving that device undamaged and working once removed and plugged into a different machine. That is a reasonable action and would be enough to cause at least one more round of cat and mouse with the clone makers, putting a massive dent into their economics. If they’d done that, it might have given FTDI a positive reputation (like the top brands of Taiwanese capacitors) instead of this self-inflicted punch-in-the-face. I’m just a hobbyist (50-100 boards/year) and so don’t matter to FTDI economics, but CH340s go in my devices now because I don’t trust FTDI at all.
    - foldr 6y ago
      You don't have to like it. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it isn't ok for FTDI to do it, or that it's a bad business decision for them.
      - sokoloff 6y ago
        It seems that FTDI might agree it was a bad business decision, given they reversed their bricking driver in favor of one which returned “NON GENUINE DEVICE FOUND!” as output (which is totally fair play, IMO.)