@Caty;Giomen
My concern is more along the lines of what if Garmin itself starts doing this sort of encryption with major areas ie Americas, Europe, Oceana, etc so that there are maybe 4 or 5 de-encryption fw's worldwide with corresponding map encryption. Along the lines of the asian jcv files which would simply mean the files can't be read by another region's fw's. And the asian units are using official Garmin regional fw. Same principal, just different files & different scale.

That's what i mean by 'unsettling implications' in Post #4. That would be a whole new ballgame, and they have the technology! Costly to do the changeover maybe, but they'd sell a Hell of a lot more maps (and more GPS units if the fw's weren't cross-flashable).