Alan: folding the data and address lines are one way to confuse the home-hobbyists but its not a great obstacle for anyone seriously looking to steal a look at the program.

Josh: agreed, the security fuses have a problem. Last February I wrote one of the 8052 manufacturers about a process to get into it. I know some defenses that can be placed in hex files for OTPs but I think they left the door wide open on flashrom and that is what concerned me enough to write.

Jay: If security fuses do not protect the program then you would be wasting your time making your manufacturing subcontractor's job harder. Again you are just making it unnecessarily complex. Consider the value of lying to the manufacturer about the real purpose of the product and selling it under a different corporation. That would keep them from knowing what to do with it. How can you sell something you can manufacture if you do not know what it does, what its price is, and who would want to buy it? Think about that.

Alan: The problem could be redefined to make CPU stuffing less attractive. Let us assume you designed the board in one country but wish to have it manufactured and sold within another country to minimize transhipment, customs and tariffs. In some countries the saying go that during the day the manufacturing runs for you but at night it runs for the owner of the plant.