Fake art! I used to work for Center Art Galleries as a translator and they were the biggest perpetrators of selling fake Dali artwork. Alot of us quit after that revelation came out. We had no idea they were fake when we sold them but the owner and upper management sure did and they went to prison for a long time. I felt bad but the lies started at the top and the rest of us and the customers were victims.

Sorry to revive this thread but I would just like to say there are Version 5 cables out there that use the up-to-date durametric software (on durametric website), that work and work well. Perhaps the OP in this case got a less-than-perfect iteration of these cables.

And as for the legal debate, making/using these cables is not illegal. A quick patent search on durametric turns up nothing, thus their electronics are not patented.

Furthermore I do not see any terms that prevent free use of their software. So both hardware and software are free to use.

But I could be mistaken.

As for the moral debate, I'll let that one rage on without me.

1. something does not have to be patented to be protected
2. reading the license for the software shows this clause:
"...and take reasonable steps to protect Licensor's intellectual property rights."

i would say it's safe to assume that Durametric has an IP right to the software you got for free, and that using the software in a way they did not intend (with the non-durametric cables) is a violation of the license agreement - which you have to agree to when installing the software.

Just to make things here worst!

Few weeks ago I got myself a cable here in Shanghai for $35 and it works with all Durametric versions (v3, v5 and v6). I was so happy to show it to indy but then my bubble got blown up really quick. He shown me the comm bus speed compared to his genuine PIWIS tester and I'd say the fake cable runs at less than half speed of the real one. This said, and with my Indy's experience, data corruption is very likely when sending data to the ECU using any fake cable type (all of them most likely coming from China). In other words, the chance that you corrupt your ecu is very high and likely.

His advice. "Keep" the cable but use it only to "read" but NEVER use it to clear codes or enable drive links and others.

That would explain why the Durametric software is free, sure they hope all of us who screw them up goes and burn their ECUs!!!! mouahahah