> NVIDIA's public reasoning was to prevent fraudulent individuals/companies from flashing a vBIOS of a higher-end graphics card onto a lower-end product to sell it at a premium as if it were the higher-end product.<p>Of the many ways to verify a product isn't counterfeit, they just had no choice but to pick the one that takes away all control from the consumer. Meanwhile phones solved this ages ago - a "bootloader unlocked" message at boot. But NVIDIA is tactically ignorant of that possibility.<p>It's long past the time we start calling out these PR statements as what they are - lies. Publications should only repeat their PR lies as:<p>"NVIDIA lied, claiming this was to prevent fraud, despite being aware of ways to combat this fraud without taking control away from the user. When asked for comment, their PR representative gave only evasive answers."