I've never encountered one but are the chips actually counterfeit or just driver-compatible?



If the latter, then seems to me FTDI are on very dangerous ground.



Are these drivers going to be included in distributions of Windows etc. as previous ones have been ?

A user could upgrade Windows , not see any warnings about this, and find their hardware has been broken.



It is not a crime to own a counterfeit item. However I'd be surprised if there aren't any jurisdictions where destroying counterfeit items was illegal.



As FTDI provide no way for the user to tell if a device is genuine or not, the warning in the license agreement (even supposing anyone reads it) is probably not a good defence.



Maybe I own a device with a fake FTDI device inside and installed drivers back when the license conditions didn't include this warning.

I then buy a new, genuine device that needs the newer driver - will installing the newer driver kill the old device as well?







