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At the time of purchase BF2142 didn't exist... although I did have BF2 and the expansion pack. And yes, I have a 4.1 speaker setup as well.

Its an extreme example of why blindly following the law as opposed to ones conscience can be totally wrong.

Creative are totally wrong here, just as any SS bastard was during WW2.

But as a company they have a duty to protect their business, and that includes their workers and shareholders, I think that they are right in not allowing Daniel_K to profit from what is rightfully Creative's.

Yes, they also have a duty to be honest and give their customers the best possible support and if they have the ability to porduce these drivers then they should, however these are two seperate issues.

Pertaining to Daniel_K, Creative are right, there's no other way around it, he was doing something illegal on their website. Creative have to stop him, not only for their interests financially, but to stop an act of theft linked from their website.

The seperate issue is that Creative are not utilising someone's creativity and that they are not releasing drivers that can be released, either at all, or with the level of quality or price expected by customers paying a premium.

Two issues, I don't think that it is much more simple or complicated than that. And most sensible people here are saying the same thing, legally they are right, they had to close him down. However as far as the drivers go, they must get their act together.

No.

They are in the wrong. 100% in the wrong.

They have lied to the market and their customers. When someone else supplies the support they have the ability to do but refuse to do - they cannot (from any moral standpoint whatsoever) accuse them of being in the wrong.


Donations is not the same as a profit making organisation - there is even a legal distinction and they are making a play with words on that.

Creative isn't going to get another cent out of me. Some guy in his basement put together better drivers than the paid professionals at Creative, which says a lot. They offered such poor product support that a guy in his basement was actually motivated enough to write those driver, which also says a lot. As a consumer, I don't care about all that corporate strategy bullshit. Other companies are willing to offer what they don't, so those companies can have my coin instead.

How can they be 100% in the wrong? No matter what you feel about Creative, Daniel_K stole intellectual property. It boils down to theft, leaving Creative aside, as I said in my last post, Daniel_K, rightfully or wrongly stole someone elses work. Whether you compare it to 'stealing bread to feed a family' or 'mugging an old lady in the street' it comes down to theft and is illegal, so from Creative's point of view, they are right in stopping what Daniel_K was doing.

The seperate issue, that you point to, is the obligation of Creative to give support to their customers; support that is available, from people like Daniel_K or from Creative themselves. There are two seperate and distinct issues here, two issues that I outlined in my last post, so I shall not repeat myself.

They lied to their customers and intentionally offered a substandard product.

Did he?

Reverse engineering a solution to the problem is legal.

"...[W]here disassembly is the only way to gain access to the ideas and functional elements embodied in a copyrighted computer program and where there is a legitimate reason for seeking such access, disassembly is a fair use of the copyrighted work, as a matter of law."

Sega v. Accolade, 203 F.3d 596 (9th Cir. 1993)

Interoperability is seen as a legitimate reason.

No it doesn't.

They want people like you to believe that.

I'm using XP and a X-Fi card. Well I WAS using it, but I have disabled it for about a year now since it blue screens my PC sometimes! I'm using my Asus mobo's integrated HD audio and have 0 BSODs.


This is equivalent of ATI or Nvidia asking Omega drivers people to stop making drivers that actually work.

Microsoft should then be suing every anti-virus software company because their OS is "safe" enough.

Well dang. Who am I going to use to replace my MP3 player if/when this old Zen Xtra bites the dust? I've no interest in getting an Ipod.

You fail to see my point.

I will not buy a Creative card because I dislike their customer service and I feel that their drivers are inadequate. It is not their threats against Daniel_K that make me choose not to buy their products. And, I'm not programming law expert, but I'm sure that Creative's lawyers are, so I'll go with them.

This is actually pretty simple. It's Creative as the role of Sheriff of Nottingham arresting Daniel_K who is Robin Hood.

As it sounds like there are indeed better products available from HT and Asus for Vista, I will definitely be looking at them when I build a new puter. Although I have only used the card so far to play sounds, I may want to actually input sounds via a michrophone some day. It sounds like the latest X-Fi products SUCK at that.

However, it is impossible to know what these other companies will do (if they are even around and still selling sound cards) when Windows 7 comes out. Expecting any company to support older products with a new OS is always a risky venture.

So, although there are drivers available for the SB Audigy 2 Value for Vista, I will have problems with them playing the latest games??? That would suck!

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008 [...] ho-fi.html

If that is from Daniel_K then I think he is very honest, and I agree with him. It's only when he actively encouraged donations that things started to get messy.

I said something like "the more people donate, the faster I'll release".

I think that's the most important.

I am not saying that I agree with Creative's arrogance on the matter, only their legal rights, which most people seem to neglect.

I think whats needs to happen is for us users to start a class action lawsuit against creative labs for substandard support or no support for windows vista, personally im getting sick of crapy sound on my x-fi card under vista i have gone back to xp where i don't have these problems.

Talk about selective quoting. Tell the whole story: