Quote Originally Posted by Russ Martin
My understanding is that IP (intellectual property) theft right now is worst (and rampant) in China and in India: In China because IP theft is almost a way of life in engineering and technology, and in India (Jerson, correct me if this is wrong) because their laws and court system have not kept pace with the development of technology.
In India, the laws are in place, but implementation is a different game altogether. Today, India is moving way ahead in terms of R&D and many companies favour indigenous development. I would say, part of that effort involves looking at superior products for inspiration. But, yet, there are folks who make their living using plain old cracking of ics for their living. They have even got so brazen as to advertise themselves in local magazines in the past. The charges of hacking the code is proportional to the benefit you would get by hacking it (thats how it works).

I do not know if burning a port pin helps, but it sounds good to me. At least it won't be read by these flimsy techniques. Obviously, the port you blow should be directly linked to the programming data port - isn't it?