Sunday, June 8th 2008
Creative Software Modder Daniel_K Gone for Good
Driver modder Daniel Kawakami or better known as Creative's Daniel_K is backing off his deal with providing modded software for all Creative sound cards for free. After receiving second warning mail from Creative threatening him with legal actions, he is finally "gone for good". He has posted a message over at the Creative forums informing everyone for his decission. Leave your thoughts here, and tell us what do you think.
Source:
Creative Forums
Daniel KawakamiI've received another cease and desist e-mail.
I'm done with Creative, enough is enough.
Don't even bother asking me for the files.
126 Comments on Creative Software Modder Daniel_K Gone for Good
As a second though, his drivers will probably live on as files on torrent sites and will go down in history as the first set of illegal drivers.
What creative is doing is basically the same as making overclocking illegal.
Imagine if Daniel K had been offering his drivers for money? People would obviously be furious and have no sympathy for him. However, ask yourself, why does this suddenly become legal if he gives his drivers away for free?
Creative built their damn X-fi chip, and licenses certain functionality only for Auzentech, Daniel_k also unlocked that functionality for standard Creative X-FI, that is one of the main reasons why Creative is so aggresive.
They said that current X-FI wont work on Vista properly because of "hardware issues" so they are working on X-FI 2 that is "tailored" for it. Daniel_k prooved that there is nothing incompatible about the hardware, hence Creative is now pissed about being caught lying.:mad:
Anyway I'll be damned if I ever buy Creative products again. I hope they go bankrupt before the fiscal year ends...
Edit: I belive that Creative could easily make drivers for Vista, maybe even better than daniel_k's , it's just that they arent realy making a lot of profit if people cling to their old hardware... I am perfectly satisified with my current Audigy 1 blaster, hell Creative have excelent hardware, but their profiteering ways made me not EVER want to buy a Creative product again. Asus Xonar here I come.
for starters, we can't compare ATI or nVidia's or any other comapny allowing users to get away with "cracking" their hardware to Creative. As stated before, the technologies are Creative's property, and it's their call what's allowable, and what's not - doesn't matter if it's 3rd party drivers or not. It makes no difference if other companies allow users to unlock features - that's their call. And if enabled features allow access to things that are supposed to be disabled due to any legal agreements between Creative and other companys.
Keep in mind as well that in the audio market, people hold on to audio cards for overly long periods of time - even after product support has reached EOL, there are still many users who won't give them up - in their mind, the card still works, still sounds good, why purchase another? There are still users out there running Live! initial-release cards (that dates back to 1998). What other type of 10-year old hardware in any of our systems can we utilize to run current applications and software? This is where I can kind of see Creative's stand, if they don't start locking and disabling features, users will never move up to newer hardware, and the company could risk losing money as well.
and about this:there's still no word yet if this last statement from Creative to Daniel is even official, and he has mentioned so himself in the OP on their forums. It could be someone just trying to prank him - I would imagine that if the message were legit, it would be more long winded than just one sentence, and wouldn't sound so abrupt.
Also, if it were from Creative, I'd imagine that there'd be a signature or at least a name at the bottom of the message, and a link back to the companies main site or the email of the signee - not a link back to the Creative Forums.
It's not legal-looking enough to be an official statement from a multi-million dollar company; especially when compared to the first statements they ever made.
Sadly, this will blow out of proportion again with mob-like mentality taking the reigns instead of anyone actually stopping to think about all the circumstances involved. :shadedshu
Gam
If i spent $1 on a piece of hardware, its mine i bought the damn thing, if I want to keep it 100 years guess what I paid for it. If i find software to mod it guess what, I payed for the damn thing. If creative dont want to support the modded drivers, guess what, I payed for the damn thing I can do whatever I want. But, when it comes to a company that only wants to keep you from moding only for the sake of proffit (or too dumb to do it theirselfs and ashamed) I draw the line. If people(customers) ever thought this would happen to begin with, creative wouldnt be a multi-million dollar company like they are now. Time for creative to screw the customers now, we will see what they get in return. If they made a product well enough to begin with, noone would be making modded drivers, and, noone would care to spend on another sound card. I build an average of 3-4 new computer a month-4-5 repairs a month and always someone wanting suggestions on new hardware. Bet you can guess what my suggestions and builds wont be. ALLEN
By your reasoning... should we should also buy our owned games again if we switch to Vista?:shadedshu
I dont understand why people have problems with understanding intellectual property rights.
First of all I do not want more channels. I want the same channels that worked on my old tv but dont on my NEW TV.
Got it?
Edit: I know that daniel_k's drivers also unlocked some extra features meant for Auzentech, but we are not discussing that alone now. Daniel_k agreed to make drivers without the extra features. If Creative was pissed only for those features then certainly I would simpathize with them, but this is not the case.
If i can help it ill never buy another creative product.