Should DIY "fixes" for Vista product drivers be encouraged? One good Samaritan has been slapped down by Creative for rolling his own Vista drivers, and users are taking up the fight.
Summary:
- Creative claiming copyright and IP infringement over non-official Vista drivers
- Developer removes non-official drivers
- Issue argue drivers shouldn't be restricted
Third party Vista drivers have been a source of frustration for graphics and audio enthusiasts since the OS first launched, but now the issue seems to have reached fever pitch.
The Creative driver hack claims to give certain Creative sound cards enhanced features that were not previously capable under Windows Vista, including Dolby Digital, DTS signals and Vista 64bit support. The driver hack is also purported to give creative drivers better compatibility and stability under Vista and less software failures and crashes.
Now Creative appears to have sparked an online backlash over the DIY effort, after demanding that the developer, who calls himself 'Daniel_K' - cease and desist all further modifications of their drivers. Users claim that the developer should be rewarded with a job for improving the product, rather than be shunned. Users have even set up a special "Boycott" website where creative customers are invited to read all about the issues behind the case.
The trouble started when Daniel_K offered his driver hacks for the Creative Audigy/Live! (Emu10kx) and the Audigy LS/SE/Value/Live!24-bit (P17) drivers on his website, linking from the official creative forums. Daniel_K's drivers helped to add full functionality to the cards running under Vista, which offered full Dolby features under Windows XP, but not on Vista. Lately, Daniel_K's enhanced drivers have been offered for download on various P2P torrent sites.
On the official Creative forum, Creative VP Phil O'Shaughnessy of Corporate Communications told Daniel_K that, "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."
"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," O'Shaughnessy added.
On the Creative forums, Daniel_K told of his reluctant decision to cease driver development, announcing, "I do know what is right, so I'll stop developing and distributing Creative softwares and drivers". He also offered a full refund for all donations that he had received under the development, obviously worried by Creative's legal threat that has attracted worldwide media attention in the last 48 hours. Daniel_K left a message to Creative management on the site by adding, "….you are faster 'protecting' [sic] your technologies and intellectual properties than providing improved drivers and softwares for your customers."
In various online forums, users are venting anger about the issue, with one alleging Creative customers are being led into believing that "by adopting the Windows Vista operating system, they would be required to purchase new Creative hardware."
The original message from Creative management that started this whole saga can be read on the official Creative forum.