It's just people making and selling clone boards who need to worry, and as a commercial enterprise they need to adapt to the market or die. Sounds a bit harsh, but that's capitalism.
True - but this is supposed to be open-source right?
One of the best things about the Arduino platform is the availability of different boards. I mentioned in another thread that I didn't think a direct clone was really in the spirit of things, but someone who uses the Arduino team's "source" to offer a tweaked board is doing a great thing.
I'm thinking right now of the R2Duino, which I love. A simple, small Arduino with two built-in relays. I want guys to be able to produce stuff like this... and for it to work without too much hassle at my end. (As it does now). If they're forced to either find the skills to integrate their own FTDI/Serial method (instead of being able to use the "source" schematics and tweak the bits they can) OR to pay $2000 for their own vID then it's going to impact the ability of the little guys to produce these unique variations.
Edit: And wouldn't stop the Farnells, Seeedstudios, DFRobotics etc. of the world from cloning the hard work of the Arduino team.