Stolen SDRplay RSP1As on eBay

[tsman]

Careful about buying SDRplay RSPs on eBay. Somebody stole a batch of units and some of them have been put up on eBay. The serial numbers have been blacklisted.

[xaxaxa]

I don't think they are doing themselves a favor by blacklisting these devices in software and punishing the users who happened to have bought these devices; does this sound familiar to anyone?

[Wirehead]

I don't think they are doing themselves a favor by blacklisting these devices in software and punishing the users who happened to have bought these devices; does this sound familiar to anyone?

*cough* FTDI *cough*

[CJay]

I don't think they are doing themselves a favor by blacklisting these devices in software and punishing the users who happened to have bought these devices; does this sound familiar to anyone?

This is hardly the same thing though, for starters it's only a few devices and users who might have bought one unwittingly have bought stolen goods, actual, physical stolen goods which don't belong to them and could well be siezed by law enforcement. If those users become aware that they have a stolen device and don't hand it back then they are committing an offence too.

The clone serial chips I think you're referring to weren't actual, physical clones, they were/are completely different silicon programmed to be protocol compatible which is not illegal, the use of the trademark, USB VID/PID and, enabled by the VID/PID, the drivers is where it gets dodgy.

To legitimise the clone parts 'all' that need be done is to assign a new VIP/PID and write some drivers (I appreciate that's a big 'only' but even so), there is no way to legitimise those stolen radios without paying the company they were stolen from.

[julianhigginson]

physically stolen units are way different to bootlegged/copy parts!

if I was buying one of these, I'd want to be sure it wasn't stolen, as already described by CJay. So some people might get burned - they are getting burned by whoever sold them the stolen gear, knowing full well the serial numbers are known, and now blocked..