Vi hade fått för oss att Creative och drivrutinsmoddaren Daniel Kawakami hade nått en uppgörelse där Daniel skulle fortsätta förse Creative-ljudkortsägare med uppdateringar utan att reta upp Creatives advokater. Så verkar dock inte vara fallet, då Daniel nu postat ett meddelande på Creatives forum där han säger att han nu fått ett andra brev som ber honom att lägga ner sitt arbete med Creatives drivrutiner. Detta har gjort att han nu beslutat sig för att sluta lansera uppdateringar och fixar. Helt enkelt för att han inte vill vilseleda konsumenter som tror att de ska få full funktionalitet med ett Creative-ljudkort när Creative så uppenbart vill begränsa deras funktion och inte vill få dem offentliggjorda. Detta är givetvis Creatives eget val, men knappast något som uppskattas av konsumenter.
Här finns en kopia av Daniel_ks post från Creatives forum;
“I’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.
Unfortunately, the situation did not change for us.
They did say an updated Audigy driver would eventually be released, but don’t be optimistic about it (their priority is the launch of X-Fi 2).
What I can say for sure is the features I’ve enabled will not be made available in an official driver update.
Although I still have my doubts, they’ve said I would not be threatened if I provided patches instead of the actual binaries, because of licensed technologies built into them (Dolby/DTS).
While this could even be true, most of the disabled features are Creative’s own technologies, which means they’ve disabled them on their own choice.
That’s funny when people think you are an idiot.
They were after me and, on a chat session, they asked me what I’d like from them, as if I were expecting something.
They’ve promised me a free X-Fi 2, but I told them it was not necessary, because I was getting a couple of cards from other companies that contacted me.
Well, at least they are getting flammed all over the web and they are certainly mad about it and I could feel it while chatting with them. That is an enough reward for my hard work.
I’m not releasing a patch to enable DDL on any X-Fi neither Crystalizer for Audigy because, as they’ve pointed out to me, providing an alternative for their customers is good for them and increase their sales, specially when someone is doing it for free. Given the current situation, I cannot let this happen, as people get used to this and still buy Creative products.
Remember, while they say that 3rd parties are ok to provide workarounds, it is Creative’s job to provide official driver/software updates.
I just hope their competitor companies do something about it.
And I really hope people don’t forget this.
Thank you very much for your support and your donations.
Best regards,
Daniel Kawakami”
