As EcuTeK has stated in an e-mail to their dealers,

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Hello

There have been incorrect statements made on various forums around the world stating that once an ECU has been programmed using EcuTeK software then the Subaru Select Monitor is no longer able to communicate with the ECU.

This is not true.

If an ECU has been programmed using EcuTeK software then it is not possible
for another person using EcuTeK software or any other read/write/copy
software to retrieve your Tuned ROM data that you have programming into that
ECU.

This is a security measure to protect YOUR hard work and has no effect on
the customer or the Subaru dealers ability to work on the customer's car.

This Tuned ROM protection feature DOES NOT interfere in anyway with any
standard diagnostic procedures via OBD products , Subaru Select Monitor ,
Immobiliser reprogramming and other related procedures. They are not
affected in anyway at all.

If a customer wishes to have a dealer reflash performed at a Subaru dealer
(or any other reflash for that matter), simply return
their ECU to a stock OEM calibration beforehand.

Please be as vocal on any forums where customers are confused or people are
giving out incorrect information.

The Team @ EcuTeK

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If you have any questions please ask,

Regards,
Crawford Performance / I-Speed USA

If a customer wishes to have a dealer reflash performed at a Subaru dealer
(or any other reflash for that matter), simply return
their ECU to a stock OEM calibration beforehand.
Well, it seems there are people who have not been given this option, or at least they're reporting so.

If a customer wishes to have a dealer reflash performed at a Subaru dealer
(or any other reflash for that matter), simply return
their ECU to a stock OEM calibration beforehand.

That's the detail there. And this was not possible at the time this "lockout" was discovered by PDX Tuning... according to PDX's findings and according to EcuTek's own statement in the thread discussing this problem. Here's the quote from EcuTek directly in that thread... so the info "circulating the forums" was correct as of their respective writing/posting.
EcuTeK instigated the locking of the data in the ECU as a direct response to our dealer network across the world.

Our partners (the tuners) have been concerned that their intellectual property was being copied and perhaps would be programmed into vehicles to which it was not suitable therefore causing engine failures for which they might be blamed.

This is not an attempt to hijack the ECU but simply a response to a feature request by our tuning partners who have invested a huge amount of their time and effort into development of ROM files.

We are beta testing software to our dealers which will allow the ECU to be returned completely to standard with no locking. This will mean that it can then be programmed by the dealer or other hardware. This is being released in a few days.

In the event of a dealer reflash being required on a modified car then it would be advisable for the customer to visit his tuner in the first instance. He will be able to program the ECU using the latest version of ROM file but with his changes incorporated. We do provide EcuTeK dealers with the very latest ROM files which are as up to date as anything the dealers have. This is a far safer and more sensible option, as re-flashing a modified vehicle back to standard is not advisable.

We would also advise that Trey Cobb will be incorporating the same changes as us, thus allowing programming by Cobb products over EcuTeK and vice versa.

This is in direct response to requests from his dealers and allows him to protect his work.

got an answer to my question...

So why didn't all EcuTeK tuners get this email 6-8 months ago, when EcuTeK began locking their flashes?

Because ecutek doesn't care about the end-user, their customer. They are terrified now that the genie of flashing is out of the bottle, because they don't sell a real product. Essentially, ecutek sells a supported version of the openecu tools, but charges a ton of $$$ to the tuner for that software/support, _and_ charges the end user a ton of money to get tuned by said tuner. Cobb is in a different boat as they sell a physical product as well as their software, and cobb has _already_ done the infrastructure to allow users to revert to stock, even if they _do_ use a locking technique. The issue _isn't_, no matter what ecutek says, the tuner's map being stolen. It is ecutek trying to protect their business model instead of changing with the times. The open guys have been pretty good about _not_ distributing cobb/ecutek maps, out of respect. A true, custom, tune, is 100% worthless to everyone except the car it was made for. Anyone using someone else's tune is completely liable when they blow up.

This is a security measure to protect YOUR hard work


:huh:
with a lot of time is not possible know HOW the car work so Know it's map by SSM ??

deltadash (or other soft) make/show a graph of all parameter that ecu use and maybe is possible reconstruct the map table ??

Really, this whole lock-out deal mainly affects those of us that want to use the openecu tools. Let's be realistic. Who's going to take their $600+ Ecutek tune to the dealer so they can get flashed with a stock map? Ok, so maybe you are selling your car and putting it back to stock. What do you do? You trade your Ecutek ECU to someone for cash plus their stock ECU, that's what. Or, you could have your Ecutek dealer flash the ECU back to stock for FREE. And how often is someone going to overwrite their $600 Ecutek license with an Accessport? That's pretty dumb.

But, you still want to tune for FREE. So you give your hard-earned cash to Cobb, instead of Ecutek. But, wait, Cobb wants to lock out the Protunes and AP maps from prying openecu eyes as well. So then what? People will start asking about professional tunes with the openecu stuff. Shops will start to tune with them. Prices will be cheaper than Cobb or Ecutek. Demand will grow. Realtime tuning will be released. More and more shops will jump on the bandwagon. Cobb and Ecutek will be hurting.

And all this was for what? Because tuners were worried that a handful of people were viewing their maps or using them for free? The maps aren't even posted on any of the prominent web sites - the site operators don't condone the stealing of maps anyway. So the actual number of people "stealing" these tunes is a lot less than you would think. Really, I think Cobb and Ecutek are shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.