We're not talking about using Arduinos here, we're talking about building them. And if, as a builder, you adopt the 8u2 as your transfer chip, you're going to need something in the VID/PID combination.
Sorry I was wearing two hats and did'nt make it clear which one was speaking when in that post ;D I was just trying to point out the futility of a community ID, because it was being discussed as IF PID could be dished out on demand if it was bought by a community.
Sorry if I was too many steps ahead, thats one of my big flaws/advantages :o (more flaw than advantage most times GRIN)
I to am a a derivative board builder and actually held off development on a final build/release for almost month ( it was slated to go to pcb the day they started teasing something cooking ) to make sure there wasn't some dramatic change, saturday I woke up and thought I had lost months worth of work and that it was going to screw my new to me biz model (open source hardware) and I, like some people here are still maintaining, thought there goes the baby with the bath water they just closed the door just as I got started.
But an hour later, after going over specs and looking into the available info I knew what should be common knowledge at this point, this is just a concept panic and not a real world problem or issue.
The FTDI chip in my circuit ( same in everyone elses and most Arduinos ) had the same capability of using VID/PID to lock feature sets by identity ( with a few extra components ) The 8U2 has those components as part of the package built in.
That is the only difference in reality even to board builders, because is STILL NOT GOING TO BE USED to lock things up, just because it is there AND CAN lock out features or close source trees or change the fact that it is open source hardware Massimo himself has said its not going that route and yet the panic continues.
Even though the 8U2 is MORE OPEN and programmable and even has a hardware access built into the board to program away anything the Arduino team puts in it, the thought panic continues.
The only thing this adds up to is the Arduino team decided to take and use an available piece of hardware in the new chipset and set a NEW STICKER in hardware, serving the same function as the made in Italy sticker and the new silkscreen graphics on the boards, no board builder except them can use any of those things, and would have to have their own or not have any at all. You do not HAVE to have your own VID/PID any more than you have to have your own patent, registering it is just another form of identification. You can build away and operate with out the registration, you just need to not conflict with an existing one, ON THE SAME COM CHAIN, not even the whole world, just your little part of the world or any of your end users part of the world if your a board builder, thats thousands of combinations of difference to not worry about.
But the panicing and discussion of "solutions to stop what the Arduino team has done to us mentality" in much of the reasoning is completely the opposite and counterproductive to the nature of the Open Hardware and Open Source point and in general is just confusing the hell out some people and scaring them just when they should be getting excited and enjoying the new fruits of the Arduino community and the Arduino development Teams efforts.
Ok that was longer and rantier than it should have been and I will shut up now :
BOZ