You can run into similar practices with things like cellular modem modules. Producers insist on signatures and purchasing dev. kits to get *any* technical information from them. Makes it very hard to do much dilligent component selection. I believe they must think that the warehouse club model where a customer must put in a level of work and expense to gain access makes a more loyal consumer. I try to avoid that when I can... Motorola seemed to do similar things a few years ago... Frustrating. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Tweed" > Frankly, I find it hard to imagine that the value of keeping such things > secret outweighs the real cost of doing the NDA paperwork and the potential > cost of alienating customers. Perhaps it's just an excuse for collecting > information about the customers. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.