It is hard to get an absolute answer on this question but my guess is that it is even more reliable than the old OTP versions as I have hard to believe Microchip is developing in the wrong directions. Piracy cracking is of course a function of the popularity and how many pirates working on it so if you want to be extremely cautious you could use some unknown hard to get and expensive devise, but even then you cant be 100%sure ;-)

Humans find solutions on all kind of problems. And they are not too bad creating them either.
Regards
Niklas



----- Original Message ----- 
From: D. Schouten <daniels@XS4ALL.NL>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 1999 7:00 PM
Subject: How pirate proof is flash memory?


> Hi All,
> 
> We are considering to change some OTP PICs for Flash types in our
> designs for ease of upgrading and SMD part use (ICP of course).
> I was wondering how much easier it is to read out a flash type part by
> pirates, in comparison with code protected OTP parts.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Bye,
> 
> Daniel...
>