[RANT]False Beeprog. AGAIN.

[Chuck Guzis]

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.

This reminds me of early failed floppy-copy-protection schemes.

Fortunately, there are solutions to restore functionality to the clone 
Beeprog.  I do not know if the same obtains for the clone Plus.

--Chuck