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."
