[RANT]False Beeprog. AGAIN.

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-06-23 17:22, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 06/23/2015 07:57 AM, Alexandre Souza wrote:
>>
>>     Some years ago, I wrote about a clone of the Beeprog (made by Elnec)
>> I bought here locally in Brazil.
>>
>>     Now, seems chinese are cloning the Beeprog PLUS (!!!)
>>
>>     I got a Beeprog+ in the used market here in Brazil. Asked for Elnec
>> warranty, since the programmer was manufactured in (month)11(year)2012.
>> It all went well up to the serial number.
>>
>>     It was made past the stop manufacture date. It stopped manufacturing
>> in 07/2012.
>>
>>     Seems I got another hot potato on my hand :'(
>>
>>     Pay atention on that!
>
> I can understand Elnec's distress over the cloning of their product, but
> they did themselves no favor by taking the approach described here:
>
> "...The manufacturer of the fake BeeProgs stole our logo and
> intellectual property by manufacturing fake copies of BeeProg
> programmer. This "product" uses also our software and users of this fake
> BeeProg are asking for our free technical support. Although the copy of
> the BeeProg programmer is done well, the manufactures of the fake
> BeeProg overlooked few details. Result is, the fake BeeProg unit differs
> from the original, visible for the software. We've used one of these
> differences - it is not a serial number - and our software could detect
> this fake hardware. If PG4UW software detects a fake hardware, it shows
> message "Fake programmer unit detected!" and programmer will no longer
> work.
>
> If you're facing such situation, contact please the vendor, where from
> you bought the programmer, for full credit return. Or you can take this
> vendor to court for selling a fake products. We regret, we could not
> provide any assistance in this case..."
>
> In the USA, they would probably end up as the target of legal action,
> since refusing to do the update is legitimate, but disabling the device
> is a no-no.  It amounts basically to theft of a product from the
> (unaware) owner--sort of an extra-judicial vigilante killing.

I doubt there any legal problems with their course of action. They are 
not obliged to ensure that their software works correctly on a pirate 
copy of their hardware.
If they add some additional checks, and they trap out on a clone, I 
doubt that could be considered illegal. They do not try to destroy your 
device. Their software just refuse to run. And I can't see it other than 
they are in their right to do that. Talk with the manufacturer of the 
clone for a software update from them instead.

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol