FTDI Removes Driver From Windows Update That Bricked Cloned Chips

New submitter weilawei writes: 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." This may have resulted from a discussion with Microsoft engineers about the implications of distributing potentially malicious driver software.

If you design hardware, what's your stance on this? Will you continue to integrate FTDI chips into your products? What alternatives are available to replace their functionality?

Comments

Counterfeiters not competitors

[Jon Peterson]

"competitors' chips" is a little unfair. It also doesn't brick anything, although a non-technical user won't know the difference. It reversibly disables counterfeit chips.

I'd say it was a grey area, simply because it's so hard to tell if a chip embedded in 3rd party hardware is genuine or not.

For those who knew they were using rip-off chips, screw 'em. It reminds me of the days when I'd get emails from people using pirated copies of my software bitching about bugs. If I could have been bothered, I'd have released a free update that deliberately screwed up those installations.