... whether this or that is moral or legal, the competition will eat you up, including your boots.

This is a rough world. While you can get your car insured, and if eventually gets stolen, chances are you will be able to get a new one; you cannot insure your product in any way. The only thing you can do is to try to minimise the potential benefits of the thief while maximising his costs and risks.

The said lockbits are not the only means of trying to increase the cost of copying (or whatever else can be done with an "unlocked" mcu). However, I would like to know its value, in $s or other currency. As it turns out, this value for the commonly available mcus is rather low - they can be, and are, read by dangling amateurs, at a cost of a few hour's labour and a few bucks of common electronic equipment. As no manufacturer will announce loudly: look our lockbits are worthless, I need to do my research myself.

Does this sound as a legal/moral enough reason to investigate the "unlocking" problem?

To be honest, Richard, I don't care...

Jan