If I brick a phone for example, it my still be possible to unbrick it. It doesn't mean it's not bricked at some point. FTDI has just made me buy EVEN MORE from China direct. FTDI's attitude stinks and shows nothing but greed and an attitude of contempt. I have learnt from this that there are alternatives IC's that are pin for pin compatible with there own PID and VID codes that have their own drivers. So if I find I have a suspect device, I will not be paying for a FTDI product, real or not. I will buy those and more fakes.
So far I have purchased over 200 items over the last few years from China knowing most were fakes. There were some items that I brought that work much better or more to the spec advertised than the item they were replicating. I have had a phone with better spec (measurable spec that is) than the iphone it was a copy of. I wouldn't buy an iphone myself anyway, I don't want DRM or closed source rubbish cluttering my shack. As it happens there are many chips out there that do what FTDI chips do, and I will be investigating those and if it means buying a batch of the next generation FTDI cloned chips that perhaps have different PID and VID, possibly unused by any other device? so be it. I'm not spending my money on real FTDI stuff ever again.
What FTDI has done is irresponsible and unacceptable.
Dennis Smith
M1DLG