They changed the language on the main article from "through December" to "in December" AFTER drives started getting bricked. They also revised and then removed the firmware after that.
"Note: This file has been updated as of Jan 19, 2008 4:15PM CST. Please re-download this if you have an earlier version."
"Note: This file has been temporarily taken offline as of Jan 19, 2008 8PM CST for validation."
Yes, Seagate thinks it's still 2008.
They also posted a serial number tool and then pulled it when things went bad; just like the firmware update.
It was located here: https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk/
My drive's serial returned "IS affected" on that tool and it was PURCHASED in November. How can they then change the language to "manufactured in December" only when people start bricking their drives with the critical update.
This issue has been known for months and back in early January their customer support forum moderators started locking threads about it. Many users moved to another forum after that.
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128092
The recent reports still use the "through December" language that was originally report BY Seagate.
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16246