Creative faces online storm after warning US modifier

[User12343]

ST 2 April 2008

 

HOME-GROWN tech giant Creative has found itself in the middle of an online firestorm after it threatened an American user who modified drivers for its Sound Blaster sound cards.

 

The user, known only by his online moniker, Daniel-K, had modified drivers - software that allows hardware devices to function on a computer - to allow the Sound Blaster Audigy cards to be used with Microsoft's Vista operating system.

 

Claiming the cards had limited functionality on Vista, he set about modifying them and distributing them online and asking for donations in return.

 

But last Friday, Mr Phil O'Shaughnessy, who is the vice-president (corporate communications) of Creative Labs, which is based in the United States, posted a public warning to Daniel-K on the company's official forum.

 

Mr O'Shaughnessy warned Daniel-K to stop distributing the modified drivers, and accused him of infringing Creative's intellectual property rights.

 

He also warned him to stop soliciting donations, saying that by doing so, Daniel-K was 'profiting from something that you do not own'.

 

News of the warning soon surfaced on several websites in the United States and elsewhere, including local forum Hardwarezone, and sparked a huge backlash against Creative on the Internet.

 

The initial warning itself attracted more than 2,000 comments, with many threatening a boycott of Creative's products. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of posts on the subject have cropped up worldwide.

 

Many users of the modified drivers are saying they did so because, according to them, the Audigy sound card's features are not fully compatible with Vista: When paired with Creative's drivers, only their basic features are available.

 

But when used with the modified drivers, advanced audio features like Dolby Digital and THX, which enable users to hear realistic surround- sound in movies, are unlocked and become available.

 

Creative takes issue with this. In his posting, Mr O'Shaughnessy said that if the company chooses to unlock features with some cards and not with others, it is a 'business decision that only we have the right to make'.

 

But users retort that since the packaging for the cards states that they are 'Vista-compatible', they expect drivers with a full list of functions when used with the operating system.

 

Others have jumped into the fray and are distributing the modified drivers on file-sharing sites like BitTorrent - for free.

 

Some Singapore netizens have also expressed anger at Creative, but many others are also defending the company because it is a home-grown icon.

 

User desertengineer wrote on the Hardwarezone forum: 'While Daniel-K probably didn't do it with ill intent, asking for money while doing it is a big no-no, and puts Creative in an awkward position. Sometimes they have to respond.'

 

Creative Singapore declined to comment, while there was no response from its US office.

 

Several users have noted that in the online world, where respect for intellectual property rights is frequently disregarded, the flaming of Creative is no surprise.

 

Apple Computer, for example, was attacked by numerous users last year after it threatened that a software update would render illegally hacked versions of its wildly popular iPhone useless.

 

But legal experts have criticised such attacks by users.

 

In a New York Times report last September on the threats against Apple, assistant dean Noah Funderburg of the University of Alabama's School of Law said: 'We have a free marketplace.

 

'Buy a product, including using it on the terms accompanying the purchase, or don't buy it. And learn to live with not always getting everything you want.'

 

CROSSING THE LINE

 

'While Daniel-K probably didn't do it with ill intent, asking for money while doing it is a big no-no, and puts Creative in an awkward position. Sometimes they have to respond.'

 

DESERTENGINEER, a user on the Hardwarezone forum, referring to the American user who modified drivers for Creative's Sound Blaster sound cards

[Blackyv]

 

i've stop using creative product many many years ago (maybe some 4-5 years ago.... i will make sure i have zero creative items or related items in my pc ....

[Rickster]

Oh crap...i've the creative audigy zs sound card in my com. Its a cheap & great card to play games with

[Sfhuang]

Time to pick up some Creative shares.

[Foxfire]

How come they can find someone to 'support' Creative and yet they can't find this http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/07/05/creat...-vista-drivers/?

 

Thing is Creative used to be value for money, I still own a few pieces of their stuff. But when the stuff starts breaking down more easily, I went for stuff that were inferior but at least it looks cool, ie Apple. When you hire tons of staff from a country known for copying rather than innovate in a technology centric organization that primarily churns out lifestyle products, you get what you deserves. Cheap does not equate good, ask our peanut-monkey lawmakers, they can write a PHD paper on it.

[Miles]

I bought their highly acclaimed Aurvana in ear headphones at premium price, only to find out it sounds worse than the stock ipod headphones.

 

well, it'll not go to waste. I'll use it as ear plugs for the Spore F1 GP.

It really is that bad.

[Shull]

damn..heng i nv buy that..

 

went for the MylarOne Crossroads at $70 bucks instead..sound so much better..

[User12343]

creative is a sunset industry, its stock prices have been dropping since... buy and sure die

[Trex101]

I have already condemn Creative products after buying a MP3 player for my wife last yr. The MP3 sound quality is so bad that her Nokia HP sound better than that.

Really disappointed with Creative.

[Darth_mel]

It should renamed itself "Destructive Technology" now since everything they do backfires....

[Bearbear1494]

This is nothing new from Creative. Their software support for their entire line-up of products has been dismal to say the least. Try running a search through the entire library of driver & software downloads at Creative's website. You'll find that updates were few, bug fixes almost non-existent on some products, driver updates only come once in a very blue moon. And now they have the cheek to ask consumers to pay again for an "upgraded" product in which only the drivers are updated to enable certain features.

 

I'm not supporting the Brazilian modder in his actions, but I believe Creative had it coming. If they had more competence or better business ethics, people wouldn't even need to crack their brains at cracking their drivers & software just to get the features they had already paid for. If they want to enable only certain features on the basic cards & enable the whole range for the higher-end cards, they should jolly well make it known on the product packaging. Only then will it be fair for consumers to decide which they want. If A wants to pay $xx extra for a bunch of features he finds essential, he can go for that option. NOT buy a product at a cheaper price, only to find that this or that is missing from the package when he gets home.

[Ultramega]

i've stop using creative product many many years ago (maybe some 4-5 years ago.... i will make sure i have zero creative items or related items in my pc ....

 

then you need to open up every computer product and check on a component level to ensure no components are made by Creative before buying. after confirming there are no Creative components, you need to check if it's a OEM item from Creative..... u sure you have ZERO Creative items?

[Dynaway]

muahaha... my audigy platinum is still going strong after all this year..... so is my AWE64 and Sound Blaster Live.....n my Microworks 2.1 speaker....

 

had no problem with them.... jus imagine how long i've been using them...

 

 

but i have to agree that their software/driver support kindda sux....

[Sfhuang]

You're lucky ... my Audigy didn't work with my previous PC due to driver incompatibility with the chipset. None of the driver updates solved the problem and I trashed the card.

[Dynaway]

muahah...

 

i did have my fun share of problems.... it burnt my VIA chipset mobo..... muahaha... n get itself killed as well

[Sosaria]

IPR is just used as an excuse. If it's true that 'Vista compatible' is printed on the box - then short-changing some functions is quite like a false claim or false ad.

 

Maybe nanotechnology allows them to insert some microscopic disclaimer, who knows?

 

As for the corp comm statement, we don't need to be some vp-ranking communication expert to deduce that it was the absolutely worst thing to say!

 

They need to learn a lesson from the PC/OS wars of the 80s. The Mac OS has obviously many better features than MS Windows - but MS ended up dominant thanks to the uncontrolled, cheap "clone" PCs that first used MS DOS, then Windows. And like it or not, unauthorised copies of the OS really helped the situation as well. Now, if the companies involved had rabidly defended their IPR in those days... who knows how things will turn out now

Edited April 2, 2008 by Sosaria

[Bugsbunny]

agreed.

[Blackyv]

i've stop using creative product many many years ago (maybe some 4-5 years ago.... i will make sure i have zero creative items or related items in my pc ....

 

then you need to open up every computer product and check on a component level to ensure no components are made by Creative before buying. after confirming there are no Creative components, you need to check if it's a OEM item from Creative..... u sure you have ZERO Creative items?

 

 

errr.. (MB-asus, HDD-wd/hitachi, soundcard-mx300,Graphics-ati, ram-kingston, dvd writer -bengQ(oem iomega),speaker-altec lansing ,lcd-samsung , keyboard-microsoft, mouse-logitec....all NON creative related..)

 

im quite sure since i fixed up my own pc.... im quite sure i didnt buy anything that comes with "creative" word printed on the box.. ......