Many Creative soundcard users are enraged by the company's latest corporate tactics.  In the past, many high-end PC components have been almost synonymous with custom drivers.  Whether it be NVIDIA, ATI, or Creative; graphics and sound chip makers have large fan bases who write custom mods both out of a desire for performance and out of necessity.

However while most hardware manufacturers have cast a blind eye on the driver modding community or even encouraged it, Creative has taken a hard-line stance that has many users crying foul.  Creative on Friday posted a notice on its message board, threatening driver maker "Daniel_K" with legal action.

The notice, posted by Phil O'Shaughnessy, vice president of Corporate Communications at Creative, reads as a terse cease-and-desist.  O'Shaughnessy states:

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...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.

The origin of this driver controversy stems from the transition from Windows Vista from XP.  When Creative rewrote the drivers for its Sound Blaster Audigy series, it left off a number of features.  Among these features were DVD-Audio support, DD/DTS decoding, an equalizer, CMSS2/CMSS Stereo Surround support, and THX Options.  Many alleged that Creative purposefully crippled its older Sound Blaster cards to push sales of its flagship X-Fi cards.  Others point out that all the Vista drivers for Creative cards, including the X-Fi drivers, are filled with glitches and frequently crash and stop working, indicating that the problem is more a general lack of success in driver writing.  Some users have even reported that they've experienced crashes and have been unable to restore their soundcards to working order, even after numerous driver reinstalls.

Amid all these problems, Daniel_K stepped into action and released a set of custom drivers for the Sound Blaster Audigy series.  These drivers re-enabled the crippled functionality from XP, improved stability, and improved general performance.  Daniel_K, having spent many hours programming the drivers, solicited contributions from supporters as is-oft done in the custom driver community.

An enraged Creative is now battling to squelch the spread of the drivers online, unhappy that the drivers enable features that it intended not to allow.  However, it is now facing an uprising from its former supporters, as indicated in the forum thread in which Daniel_K was put on notice.  The forum thread features over 1,600 messages, nearly all angry blasts against what is perceived as Creative's draconian assault on the modder community.

User "Eggchaser," a "trusted contributor" writes, "He does something that Creative are either not capable of doing or refuse to do.  If you are not capable then I suggest you sack your software writers and employ ones that can ... Incidentally you flagship products (X-FI) STILL do not run properly on Vista with YOUR drivers ... Shame on you for doing this, actually I laugh at you for doing it because what you have done is lost yourselves customers ... One customer lost and counting."

Another contributor, "includeao," writes, "daniel_k must be praised has a hero ... Creative IS stealing MY goods with bad marketing, services and drivers."

Many users are suggesting a boycott of Creative.  Creative is already sagging under sinking sales of sound cards and its stock price dove steeply enough for it to voluntarily delist itself from NASDAQ last year.  For an interesting read on the business side of Creative's woes, refer to AnandTech's analysis of the company.

While daniel_k's posts on the creative forums advertising the drivers may have been deleted, the O'Shaughnessy memo does indicate that daniel_k intends to keep up his modding. 

Says Shaughnessy, "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."