[panpanna]

Since you are blindly defending FDTI and blaming the designers, let me add another crucial detail that might change your mind:

A lot of fakes were distributed through reputable sources as originals. So you could for example build a medical device using expensive original components from digikey, only to see it breaking in the hospital for no apparent reason.

I bet people have _died_ due to FTDIs actions.

[DanBC]

> A lot of fakes were distributed through reputable sources as originals. So you could for example build a medical device using expensive original components from digikey

Medical device manufacturers would want both certificates of conformity and traceable parts. They'd want these if they built the product themself; they'd specify this if they got a sub-contract manufacturer. If the component supplier can't offer traceability back to the real manufacturer you'd probably want to buy from someone else.

https://www.jjsmanufacturing.com/blog/traceability-in-electr...

I don't think bricking the devices is the right thing for FTDI to do. The consumer friendly thing to do is give warning and an FDTI contact email to report the product so FDTI can talk to the manufacturer.

[panpanna]

The problem is that these devices came from legitimate sources with the right paperwork.

[DanBC]

I find it hard to believe that anyone got traceability information with these fake devices.

I can't understand how a component supplier would comingle their traceable stock.

EDIT: since this is getting downvotes.

A component supplier would destroy customer trust if they supplied fakes with traceability certificates. It would mean anyone building for aerospace or military or medical or mining or etc etc (all large, multibillion dollar industries) would have to avoid that supplier. So what's in it for the component supplier?

I accept the fakes are common. I accept people bought fakes from reputable suppliers. What I don't accept is that people bought fakes when they asked for traceable components. I don't accept that companies buyign direct from FTDI got fake components.

[robomartin]

You are getting down votes because of the disconnect between those posting comments of voting and experience in the domain. The gap is massive and very visible. I have yet to see anyone come online to say "I make a million widgets per year and fake chips are not a problem at all". Easy for keyboard warriors to have an opinion without ever having had skin in the game.

They raise truly legitimate first approximation concerns about damage to consumers without understanding the long term damage to, again, consumers is far greater when a hard stance isn't adopted on fake hardware. It's the satisfaction of "doing the right thing" in the one case (FTDI) at the expense of never again being able to protect consumers from fake devices by disabling them if identified.

Counterfeiters continue to exist because they are allowed to make money. Stop their ability to profit and they will evaporate as quickly as they popped up. That's what everyone is missing, it's this feeling that the consumer was actually protected by forcing FTDI to pull back when, in reality, the mob created lasting damage to the safety, security and quality of consumer electronics products until someone else has the intestinal fortitude to make a stand, which, given the ferociousness of what is social media today could easily take decades.

Not only is it it a lack of understanding of how the electronics supply chain works, it also represents a lack of understanding of how the economics of fraudulent products works and how it is affecting people, companies and jobs globally.

We need to get very serious about intellectual property protection or Europe, the US and the world will be converted into nothing more than service and agrarian economies in a matter of decades.

[robomartin]

> I bet people have _died_ due to FTDIs actions.

I'll bet that's an exaggeration. If you are going to say something like that you have to back it up with data.

I could just as easily make the claim that people have died due to fakes. We can do that and go round and round a silly pointless circle.

The problem of fakes is real. And it is likely very much political (addressed in another comment). What is is NOT is the legitimate manufacturer's fault, even if they defend their existence by refusing to allow fakes to function with their drivers.

Fake chip manufacturers are perfectly free to do the required R&D, issue and support their own drivers. However, they are thieves, and prefer to steal rather than do the hard work and take the risks their victims undertake.

[sokoloff]

> if they defend their existence by refusing to allow fakes to function with their drivers.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that FTDI has to let those chips be supported by FTDI drivers. I believe that intentionally sabotaging devices that have clone chips in them (such that they won’t work even once disconnected from the computer running their driver or that the device will be damaged simply by plugging it into a computer with that driver) goes well beyond simply “refusing to allow fakes to function with their drivers.”

That’s not OK, IMO.