It's a little unpopular with me, yes, but it also depends:
(1) Was the "bricking" intentional[0], as in, did FDTI's driver look for the counterfeit, and upon finding it, issue instructions that would make the device useless, even when used with drivers/configurations that previously worked. It also matters, a little, whether or not this is easily reversed.
(2) Did the FDTI take similarly extreme measures to prevent/stop unauthorized chips that weren't impacting customers/non-customers.
The main thing that would leave me with little sympathy for FDTI[0] is if it was intentional, i.e. the update had no other purpose except to break these devices. Past counterfeit situations come to mind where an update "just happened to brick" counterfeits, but it was due to the counterfeit having some limitation[1] not present in the genuine product.
But that second point is beginning to matter a whole lot more, these days. If FTDI makes it extremely difficult for me to determine what is a real FTDI chip and what is not a real FTDI chip -- or, put another way, if the counterfeits are that difficult to tell from the real thing -- and FTDI decides to breaks the one I thought was real...? I'm going to be swearing. I'm going to be at least as pissed off at the FTDI folks as I am at the outfit responsible for the counterfeit, but FTDI is forever associated in my head with "I can't do what I need to do, now". It's terribly unfair that FTDI has to go through trouble to keep a$$holes from counterfeiting their products, but it is the world we live in.
There are also companies that specialize in this sort of thing for brands/products of all types[2].
At the end of the day, the worst FTDI should do is throw up a large notice "This is not an FTDI device. If it indicates that it is an FTDI device, it is a counterfeit. This driver most likely will not work with your device because it isn't ours." ... here's a link to buy a real one from places that we know won't sell you a counterfeit, etc.
That puts blame where it belongs and even if the driver worked would probably result in me purchasing a replacement from the link, knowing that I'd never have problems in the future.
[0] And hope that some legal issues would come their way
[1] Maybe less RAM/storage than it's supposed to have, and maybe it lies about it, too.
[2] I'm doing work for one, right now... it's an interesting space; I used to think it was as pointless as trying to stop media piracy. There's, surprisingly, a lot of effective (and creative) measures to greatly disrupt/stop these larger scale rip-offs, and a lot that can be done which legitimately protects the customer -- but it's a thousand-pronged attack and you'll never completely eliminate counterfeits, especially for designer brands and such.
(1) Was the "bricking" intentional[0], as in, did FDTI's driver look for the counterfeit, and upon finding it, issue instructions that would make the device useless, even when used with drivers/configurations that previously worked. It also matters, a little, whether or not this is easily reversed.
(2) Did the FDTI take similarly extreme measures to prevent/stop unauthorized chips that weren't impacting customers/non-customers.
The main thing that would leave me with little sympathy for FDTI[0] is if it was intentional, i.e. the update had no other purpose except to break these devices. Past counterfeit situations come to mind where an update "just happened to brick" counterfeits, but it was due to the counterfeit having some limitation[1] not present in the genuine product.
But that second point is beginning to matter a whole lot more, these days. If FTDI makes it extremely difficult for me to determine what is a real FTDI chip and what is not a real FTDI chip -- or, put another way, if the counterfeits are that difficult to tell from the real thing -- and FTDI decides to breaks the one I thought was real...? I'm going to be swearing. I'm going to be at least as pissed off at the FTDI folks as I am at the outfit responsible for the counterfeit, but FTDI is forever associated in my head with "I can't do what I need to do, now". It's terribly unfair that FTDI has to go through trouble to keep a$$holes from counterfeiting their products, but it is the world we live in.
There are also companies that specialize in this sort of thing for brands/products of all types[2].
At the end of the day, the worst FTDI should do is throw up a large notice "This is not an FTDI device. If it indicates that it is an FTDI device, it is a counterfeit. This driver most likely will not work with your device because it isn't ours." ... here's a link to buy a real one from places that we know won't sell you a counterfeit, etc.
That puts blame where it belongs and even if the driver worked would probably result in me purchasing a replacement from the link, knowing that I'd never have problems in the future.
[0] And hope that some legal issues would come their way
[1] Maybe less RAM/storage than it's supposed to have, and maybe it lies about it, too.
[2] I'm doing work for one, right now... it's an interesting space; I used to think it was as pointless as trying to stop media piracy. There's, surprisingly, a lot of effective (and creative) measures to greatly disrupt/stop these larger scale rip-offs, and a lot that can be done which legitimately protects the customer -- but it's a thousand-pronged attack and you'll never completely eliminate counterfeits, especially for designer brands and such.