> copycats are free to write thier own drivers though?
Sure, anyone paying for a Microsoft certified hardware driver, USB PID allocation, and cert fees every year... Everyone else is not allowed in the OS we paid for...
It is a decades old serial port emulation chip... Racketeering with a computer should still be illegal. =3
I do agree the cost of the chips are insane however, they're ultimately worth paying for because of the driver support and 'just works' factor.