Thursday, July 5th 2007
NVIDIA threatens NGOHQ over ForceWare Distribution
It seems that NVIDIA is upset that the folks over at NGOHQ.com are distributing their ForceWare drivers with modified install scripts. NVIDIA is threatening legal action towards the site and its owners if they do not comply with their demands.
Of particular note is AMD/ATI's stance on modifying install scripts for their Catalyst package:
"Feel free to distribute and endorse Catalyst software. Just please let your users know that if they use modified drivers we aren't able to support them properly. Keep up the good work in the community." -AMD/ATI
NGOHQ issued an official response to the letter which can be found over here:
www.ngohq.com/news/11386-our-official-response-nvidia.html
Source:
NGOHQ
Of particular note is AMD/ATI's stance on modifying install scripts for their Catalyst package:
"Feel free to distribute and endorse Catalyst software. Just please let your users know that if they use modified drivers we aren't able to support them properly. Keep up the good work in the community." -AMD/ATI
NGOHQ issued an official response to the letter which can be found over here:
www.ngohq.com/news/11386-our-official-response-nvidia.html
87 Comments on NVIDIA threatens NGOHQ over ForceWare Distribution
Also, removing support for older cards is not illegal by any means in any country. Morally wrong, of course, but illegal, no (look at those a-holes at Creative supporting the x-fi and not much else). Also, there have been some attempts at class action lawsuits w/them, but that was over the 8x00 series in Vista (which still needs work, btw), and I don't forsee any class action lawsuit coming from Nvidia's customers if they don't have any modified infs around.
Don't get me wrong, I support what's going on at that site, and I disagree w/Nvidia's response to them, but the site's response is below par... Go ATI/AMD!
I can't wait to see how NVIDIA response back!
i don't support it though ...
he is an idea....... OFFER THEM A F**KING JOB YOU BUNCH OF RETARED SAUSAGES!!!!!
Nvidia should take a page from AMD/ATI's book.
He started getting redundant, when he hit the part about "psychological warfare," I was thinking "ok, done reading this..."
@Wayward, ATI is becoming more open because it's just a business strategy, to get more customers, don't think they're saints. Nvidia has a right to protection of their products, even if they go off the deep end.
I think ATI should take a page from Nvidia's book, then they might not be getting their asses handed to them so often.
Nvidia has a responsibility to sell products that work, if they don't and other people release fixes for free, they should be grateful instead of belligerent.
ATI has their share of similar issues with similar products so, really that's a moot point.
One would assume that they might be grateful, but to suggest the SHOULD be is a bit out of the average end users league. You must consider that there's gotta be tons of Nvidia technical support that's wasted on customers who are complaining about Nvidia products, where the tech support finds out later that the customer is using modified drivers and software.
This is similar to the arguement of art being free or not. Some people think that they have the right to distribute art from any artist, because it will help promote and iconify that artist and their work; which logically would suggest that it's in someway 'helping' said artist(S). Yet, there's others, who say bluntly that it's not your right to assume the role of campaigning for the artist's best interests. Now, add in a business side to it, and it becomes more complex.
Nvidia is like any other company, they put out a product, when people modify that product and it has the potential to harm the image of Nvidia, then they are within their rights to be concerned. Now to what extent those rights hold water within the lay of the law, most of us don't know.
This comes off to me like car manufacturers, who state that certain products when used with their automobiles, void the warranty. Then there's some manufacturers who openly embrace the use of modified aftermarket products, because it (in their minds) helps to promote the vehicle or the status of the company.
For the last several years, we've seen some automakers putting out 'tuner' style cars, because they think it will help make sales, and boost their image amongst automobile consumers. And in some ways, it does work. But for the former automaker, they have a right to not want their image or their sales affected by third parties, who go and take their base vehicle, modify it in some way, then start redistributing it to the public(while it still carries the badge of the original vehicle), with or without warning labels(that's a big ass label lol). Of course, if there's no money involved, then there's probably not much they can do, but like Nvidia they have the perrogative to not be happy with it. And if they think they have some legal standing, then they may make a threat, like Nvidia has here.
I just don't see why people are surprised. If Nvidia wants to pick on someone, for whatever reason, then that's up to them. Whether the law will support it, that's another issue. But it's far from shocking, and the excuses and retaliation comments that people come up with are just absolutley silly.
@Wile
That statement is based off of the fabled and much hyped 2900 being competitive to the GTS and not the GTX,(also taking into account the Ultra exists AND the 8900 is in development).
@Xerphon
That is such ignorance. And this is an example of what I mentioned above concerning people freaking out. What do you really care about some rinky-dink website and their products? Do you hold or show patronage to that Israeli site, and to such an extent that you would basically blindly inhibit yourself from obtaining what you want in effort to promote some sort of boycott? Come on?!? You wanted the GTX, it's an Nvidia product. Nvidia doesn't worship Satan, slaughter babies or committ genocide. That's like people saying "Oh, well, I'm going to renounce my American citizenship because I don't like the way Bush is handling things.' RIGHT...sure....
Its not unified, because they keep segregating it - yet with a little swapping around in an .inf file, its suddenly unified again. They don't alter the driver, they simply allow it to install on 'unsupported' cards - and without it older card users and/or laptop users would be screwed and forced to upgrade.
All they need is to provide a unified driver for say, Geforce 2 through geforce 7, for windows XP and geforce 5 through 7 for vista - one stable driver and the majority of people wont care.
Geforce 8 series are still new so yes, i can understand it having a separate driver (particularly if its unstable/beta) but that doesnt mean fixes found along the way shouldn't be passed backwards into unified drivers. ATI do this monthly, but Nvidia customers can be stuck with one driver for years.
Who here wouldnt mind say, a new unified driver every 3-6 months for older products, with monthly for the latest series?
(The reason here being bug fixes: if TV out support is broken for all cards, or a majority - that kind of fix matters even for a geforce 2 in XP as much an 8800)