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[ NNSquad ] FTDI apparently admits bricking chips, is withdrawing offending driver 

FTDI apparently admits bricking chips, is withdrawing offending driver

You'll recall recently I reported on accusations that FTDI was purposely
bricking (disabling) "counterfeit" versions of their chips, an impression
increased when I spoke with one of their senior engineers (who abruptly 
ended the call after he made some quite oblique statements).

Slashdot now reports that FTDI is withdrawing the driver that had this
effect, and FTDI's reported statement appears at this point to confirm
that the effect was intentional. I have not yet been able to reach
FTDI's site to read their full statement -- it is either overloaded or
suffering "other problems" -- hmm.  By the way, a method to restore
the bricked chips has been independently developed for Linux users.

(Slashdot): http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/10/24/1330252/ftdi-removes-driver-from-windows-update-that-bricked-cloned-chips?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

    Last night, FTDI, a Scottish manufacturer of USB-to-serial ICs, posted
    a response to the ongoing debacle over its allegedly intentional
    bricking of competitors' chips. In their statement, FTDI CEO Fred Dart
    said, "The recently release driver release has now been removed from
    Windows Update so that on-the-fly updating cannot occur. The driver is
    in the process of being updated and will be released next week. This
    will still uphold our stance against devices that are not genuine, but
    do so in a non-invasive way that means that there is no risk of end
    user's hardware being directly affected."

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--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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