FTDI recently took the same approach of having their driver deliberately brick counterfeit
chips, rather than throwing an error and refusing to talk to them.
This is why I no longer purchase their chips or design them into my projects. A vendor who
distributes drivers which deliberately brick hardware is too much of a liability. I
understand that counterfeit products are a real problem, but I do not accept that
response.
--
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/