Creative Threatens Community Modder

[regomodo]

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

Link is here

Well, i've removed my audigy se and plan on never using Creative again (Creative pulling the plug on Linux support just adds to it)

Who should we buy from instead?

Here are a list of alternates

Audiotrak
Hercules >> if you can get it to load
M-Audio
Phillips >> USB stuff
Terratec
Turtle Beach >> a new one to me

I have no idea about the extent of Linux support of these manufacturers.

[smoker]

seems they would rather force vista users to update to a newer card than provide decent drivers for vista users using existing cards!

all i can say, is vista users seem to get a raw deal from every direction (lol), but they shouldn't be threatening users of their equipment trying to improve it!

i will be avoiding anything from this company in the future.

[kinematic]

As some of you may know Creative crippled their Vista drivers on purpose in order to force customers to upgrade their sound cards. A lone hacker by the name of Daniel_K conjured up a working driver all by himself and posted it on the Creative forum making a lot of paying customers happy. Of course Creative does not want anybody to provide working drivers for their cards so they threatened Daniel_K with legal action and made him remove the drivers. I've always known that the folks over @ Creative aren't the brightest bunch but this is taking it to another level of stupidity. You can read the original message by Creative here as well as the reactions by their customers.

[regomodo]

odd, this must be the quietest thread on the internet about Creative's PR suicide

[fatality_uk]

Amazing!! I am, almost speachless, which would be a first

[regomodo]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=739516

[z0mbie]

Boycott.

[rune0077]

Although I personally have no issues with the idea of software piracy and such, you can't really be mad at a company for enforcing their copyrights. Creative can do what they want with their licenses, it's their choice - I like my Creative speakers and headphones, and I have no intention to stop using them or to never buy anything from them again.

[tad1073]

seems they would rather force vista users to update to a newer card than provide decent drivers for vista users using existing cards!

all i can say, is vista users seem to get a raw deal from every direction (lol), but they shouldn't be threatening users of their equipment trying to improve it!

i will be avoiding anything from this company in the future.

It is all about profit with these companies, not that making a profit is bad, but for them not to have support and updated drivers for older cards to work with vista is certainly forcing vista users to buy new soundcards that do support vista. And I know if I bought vista and updated my pc from xp to vista someone would have hell to pay if my sound card didn't work and no drivers were available. A move like that is very unethical. And as far as them cutting Linux support - their are no words to express how I feel about that.

I have been saying that all the major software companies are in each others pockets. We need to do something about it, we need to take action against MS and the fact that vista is not backwards compatable with every available software, hardware etc.

[Rhapsody]

Well I would boycott Creative for this (and I plan on buying a sound card soon), but what else do I get? Figuring out what's guaranteed to work perfectly with ALSA is doing my head in anyway, excluding Creative would make a decision even harder. So if I'm to boycott Creative, what do I buy?