BF2S Forums http://boycottcreative.com/BoycottCreative.html :D

Last edited by GC_PaNzerFIN (2008-03-31 19:24:37)

r2zoo wrote:

I dont get it, does it say compatible with Vista on the soundcard boxes or what? Just because you own something that works in XP doesnt mean your entitled to having it work in a new OS.  Maybe im jsut crazy...sure annoying, but I got a free sound card out of it.

ghettoperson wrote:

Lolz @ this thread on Creatives forums. Some people...

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

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2008-04-01 08:39:41)

Lucien wrote:

mikkel wrote:

I wouldn't buy any Creative products, and I don't agree with their absurdly anti-consumer driver practices, but if this guy was soliciting donations for unlocking intentionally locked features, and enabling Creative IP on hardware that it wasn't intended for, I can't really find a reason to have any sympathy for this guy. Creative is making money on abusing consumers, and this guy is making money on abusing Creative. Two wrongs don't make a right, no matter how wrong the first one is.

DONATIONS.

He worked hard to get shit working for thousands of people. Not only does he deserve the one or two donations he's going to get (that won't compensate for anything he's done and will be zero compared to what Creative earn), any programmer who makes freeware asks for donations thesedays.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Creative Labs
Oh, that's fucking rich. Coming out and telling everyone [who didn't know] that your drivers disable stuff that your hardware should be capable of because of licensing? That's like walking up to someone on the street and asking them if they want to take part in your new scam without so much as trying to disguise the fact.

Last edited by mikkel (2008-04-01 09:09:20)

Lucien wrote:

mikkel wrote:

The point is that this isn't freeware. It's piracyware. He's making money off of property that isn't his. Donations or otherwise, why should anyone deserve compensation for illegalities, simply because they're time-consuming?

You're either april-fooling or a complete and utter idiot.

I remember on the Steampowered forums you could just choose to remove a user's posts from your view completely, it was very useful.

Last edited by GC_PaNzerFIN (2008-04-01 10:11:16)

GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:

I have only one thing to say:

Without this guy, Creative would have one customer less. He was my only help with my problems.

Without him some of us (owners of Creative products) would have jumped the ship to auzentech for example a LOOONG time ago. Creatives customer support is horrible. This guy was actually helping them keeping their customers.

I'll gladly buy some other company's sound card in the future when my Audigy (that works almost as x-fi with these awsome custom drivers) dies.

Lucien wrote:

jamiet757 wrote:

mikkel wrote:

Locking certain capabilities of hardware to create tiers of capabilities and pricing while maintaining a streamlined production process with only one piece of physical hardware has been pretty standard practice for as long as the personal computer has existed.

I agree, think of it this way: Which would be cheaper, creating a line of 10 different cards that are at different price levels with different capabilities, or creating one card and locking features with software so you can sell it at different price tiers. Some people don't want to spend $500 for a sound card, others do. If you unlocked all the features of the cards, they would all be worth lots of money.

It is much cheaper to design and build 1 card, than 10 variations with different hardware.

Even if you card has the hardware, you did not pay for the ability to use the high-end features of the expensive cards, if you could do that, everyone would buy the cheapest cards and unlock the high-end features, and the company would lose money because it spent money developing and designing a card with high-end features, but that can be locked for the low-budget user.

OR IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ALL THAT:

You didn't pay for the high-end features, so why should you be able to use them, regardless of if they exist in the card or not?

..because you did pay for them. Nice EAX features, sound mixer, speaker tuning: it's all on the box. There's also a sticker on said box saying it's vista compatible.

To make it clear:

-it says you will get those features if you buy it
-it says it will work on vista.

But yet you don't get what you pay for: the features that you are told you are buying do not work.

Their drivers are broken. They started off at the right level, then they broke and someone fixed it. Daniel_P did not make new features available that he shouldn't have because he only worked to restore broken features.

mikkel wrote:

The point is that he worked on proprietary and protected software without permission. Creative may have shitty software support, but it's -their- shitty software support. If you don't like it, you can start a class-action lawsuit or simply buy hardware from a different vendor. This guy did something illegal, and was told to stop it. What's wrong with that?