Alan B. Pearce wrote:
>> A similar issue was raised late last year at the Indian Masters in
>> Delhi, India... Their C compiler C18 has a 60 day limit after which it
>> loses some optimisation and features. Somebody pointed out you could
>> keep the compiler full-featured after 60 days if you changed the PC's
>> system clock to point back. The Microchip engineer didn't have anything
>> to say about this and passed it over. It seemed he knew about this
>> protection scheme failure. Which means Microchip knows about it, and
>> since they haven't done anything to improve the protection so far, they
>> don't mind the compiler getting 'cracked' this way.
>>     
>
> Or just re-installing it - or does this not work anymore? Besides which 
> there is not a lot of work involved in identifying how it knows it is the 
> demo one, and making it so that it accepts a registered update.
>
>   
>> So maybe Microchip doesn't really mind cloning of its programmers, or
>> that its software protection being bypassed this way. They are in the
>> business of selling microcontrollers and maybe believe that giving away
>> free/cheap software, easy-to-clone programmers helps the sales of these
>> microcontrollers.
>>     
>
> The simple protection of the C18 compiler suggests they are happy put the 
> effort into developing tools that help sell more chips, and that customers 
> are happy to evaluate and purchase such tools, but they are not going to put 
> a lot of time into attempting to stop hackers cracking any protection 
> scheme, as this is not the primary income stream, and the tools are only 
> useful for use on what is their main income stream.
>
> If they can make some income out of the secondary stream of tools, then 
> fine, that supports the development of the tools, and if hackers bypass the 
> protection then they are probably going to use the tool on chips that form 
> the main income stream, but if they don't then microchip have lost nothing. 
>
>   
But in any case, MC has a win-win situation, as you can't use an ICD2 
clone to develop ATMEL parts,
for example. Right?

I think MC is "laughing all the way to the bank", an American expression 
that covers it well.

--Bob
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