Fair enough but shortly the job of recycling our subsidised hardware is due to get a bit trickier for you I hope.(Assuming we've implemented SHA256 hashing and MD5+RSA signing correctly ;-)

This isn't an attempt to break the "fun" that you guys have been having but realistically, if some Eastern European (for example) outfit decided to use the "backdoor" technology you've come up with to then buy up 10,000 of our phones at £50 and then recycle the electronics into some completely new product with their own software or even continue to use the h/w for their own telephony then we'd make a HUGE loss. We can't afford to run that risk so have to protect our investment in the per unit subsidy. It's not the fact that 5 or 10 talented engineers in the UK have managed to "break in" - that's no real problem for us - good luck to you and your ingenuity, you got £100+ worth of electronics for £50. In fact we owe you thanks for highlighting our security shortcomings - I'd be interested if anyone can "break in" to newly protected hardware (OK, desoldering the NOR doesn't count! ;-)

I know this sounds a bit heavy handed but otherwise it turns into Alan's famous "Apprentice" quote of "selling £10 notes for a fiver a time" and Amstrad as a relatively small company, just cannot afford to do that.