Creative Threatens Modder for Making Sound Cards Work Under Vista.

[Escaep]

http://forums.creative.com/creative...w=by_date_ascending&message.id=116332#M116332

Daniel_K:

We are aware that you have been assisting owners of our Creative sound cards for some time now, by providing unofficial driver packages for Vista that deliver more of the original functionality that was found in the equivalent XP packages for those sound cards. In principle we don't have a problem with you helping users in this way, so long as they understand that any driver packages you supply are not supported by Creative. Where we do have a problem is when technology and IP owned by Creative or other companies that Creative has licensed from, are made to run on other products for which they are not intended. We took action to remove your thread because, like you, Creative and its technology partners think it is only fair to be compensated for goods and services. The difference in this case is that we own the rights to the materials that you are distributing. By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods. When you solicit donations for providing packages like this, you are profiting from something that you do not own. If we choose to develop and provide host-based processing features with certain sound cards and not others, that is a business decision that only we have the right to make.

Although you say you have discontinued your practice of distributing unauthorized software packages for Creative sound cards we have seen evidence of them elsewhere along with donation requests from you. We also note in a recent post of yours on these forums, that you appear to be contemplating the release of further packages. To be clear, we are asking you to respect our legal rights in this matter and cease all further unauthorized distribution of our technology and IP. In addition we request that you observe our forum rules and respect our right to enforce those rules. If you are in any doubt as to what we would consider unacceptable then please request clarification through one of our forum moderators before posting.

Phil O'Shaughnessy
VP Corporate Communications
Creative Labs Inc.


Forum Moderator
Creative Labs

--Escape

 

[Krynn72]

Sounds reasonable enough to me. If hes changing their stuff to do more than they offered with the card, it is their right to put an end to it. And kudos to Creative for not making a pretentious and douchebagery email like most companies do.

 

[-Psy-]

Creative make the worst drivers ever.

 

[Asus]

The email was nicely put and Creative does have a right to protect their IP etc. But was this guy doing anything that was actually hurting Creative or would they be better serving customers by letting him provide the support he was doing? How is it different than Omega drivers?
"ATI supports the enthusiast community wholly. Omega Drivers are in fact a good example of ATI’s user community at its best." -Terry Makedon

Also, Asus vs Creative
Creative needs more competition from big players.

 

[VirusType2]

The email was nicely put and Creative does have a right to protect their IP etc. But was this guy doing anything that was actually hurting Creative or would they be better serving customers by letting him provide the support he was doing? How is it different than Omega drivers?
"ATI supports the enthusiast community wholly. Omega Drivers are in fact a good example of ATI?s user community at its best." -Terry Makedon

Also, Asus vs Creative
Creative needs more competition from big players.

Keep us posted Asus. I'd like to see the review of the new Asus sound card.

Creative drivers are the reason I won't buy another creative product.

They still haven't fixed the drivers for their X-Fi cards and they have been out for a long time. They should have fixed it immediately.

If it's my motherboard causing the problem (like they claim), then their card just sucks, because this is probably one of the most common motherboards out there and their hardware needs to be compatible.

Besides, If I buy a new motherboard, there is no guarantee that it will work with that one either.

I never understood why games that use simple WAV and MP3 sounds could be so difficult for the card to play. Most games won't allow me to use any of the nice effects like EAX with this card anyway, and many games just won't play sound correctly with this card.

although it sounds pretty nice just playing music, X-Fi is a joke for a game PC in my experience.

 

[Tagaziel]

If he didn't request donations, that e-mail would propably be never sent.

 

[Hazar]

I think creative has gone too long without competition in the sound card market so they can afford to be super lazy with their driver support

 

[Krynn72]

If he didn't request donations, that e-mail would propably be never sent.

Not only that, but it seems like they asked him to stop before, and he said he would, but then goes and offers it somewhere else, still asking for donations, and then even making a post saying he will release a new version. Sounds like hes being a dick.

Although you say you have discontinued your practice of distributing unauthorized software packages for Creative sound cards we have seen evidence of them elsewhere along with donation requests from you. We also note in a recent post of yours on these forums, that you appear to be contemplating the release of further packages.

 

[VirusType2]

Not only that, but it seems like they asked him to stop before, and he said he would, but then goes and offers it somewhere else, still asking for donations, and then even making a post saying he will release a new version. Sounds like hes being a dick.

why don't they just hire the greedy guy though. Being a money grubber, he'd fit right in at Creative - except he'd make good drivers, apparently.

That's something they just won't allow around here. huff huff.

 

[Krynn72]

Apparently, making bad drivers is part of their business strategy, so why would they want to hire someone who would make good ones?

 

[TwwIX]

**** Creative and their lack of support.
Even Newegg.com had enough of them http://forums.creative.com/creative...w=by_date_ascending&message.id=117948#M117948

 

[Krynn72]

If you believe that was Newegg for even a second, you need to find a new brain.

 

[DreamThrall]

It looks like the IP problem may have been specifically with Dolby support... I'm sure Creative paid big bucks for licensing Dolby, and that I can understand.

 

[CptStern]

gotta love Creative's work ethic:

'Ok, I see a lot of negativity here. Please lets cut the bad talk. We try our best to get working drivers and sure we might not be the best coders but god knows you're really only paying for the low end cards anyway, if people want the professional stuff they would be getting the true pro stuff, its a get what you pay for thing, so don't complain so much, we'll get the drivers working eventually.'

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=Vista&message.id=23909

go back to your business hammock and work on your crossword, the creative drivers will get done ........eventually

 

[Asus]

If the forum is setup to send a confirmation email out to activate new accounts then the Newegg message could be true (email under the account is [email protected]). That's assuming another email confirmation would be required to change the email listed for the account. If not then they could have changed it after the 'newegg' account was made. I think it's fake until I see it proven otherwise.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

This is an oppurtunity to hire somebody, and the initiative should be taken

 

[VirusType2]

**** Creative and their lack of support.
Even Newegg.com had enough of them http://forums.creative.com/creative...w=by_date_ascending&message.id=117948#M117948

wow.

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[Operational]

But was this guy doing anything that was actually hurting Creative or would they be better serving customers by letting him provide the support he was doing? How is it different than Omega drivers?

It's probably not much different, but ATI made the decision to allow the Omega man to continue. In fact as I recall there used to be Omega drivers for Nvidia until they made life difficult for him, not unlike what Creative is doing to this guy.