Creative Labs Kill Third Party Development

Well it had to happen sooner or later. Creative have chosen to step in and prevent people from “modding” drivers. This link to Creative Forums contains confirmation that Creative own the rights to Audigy software - and they don’t want you to use it under Vista. Finally some sort of stance from them I can believe.

Daniel_K:
We are aware that you have been assisting owners of our Creative sound cards for some time now, by providing unofficial driver packages for Vista that deliver more of the original functionality that was found in the equivalent XP packages for those sound cards.  In principle we don’t have a problem with you helping users in this way, so long as they understand that any driver packages you supply are not supported by Creative.  Where we do have a problem is when technology and IP owned by Creative or other companies that Creative has licensed from, are made to run on other products for which they are not intended.  We took action to remove your thread because, like you, Creative and its technology partners think it is only fair to be compensated for goods and services.  The difference in this case is that we own the rights to the materials that you are distributing.  By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods.  When you solicit donations for providing packages like this, you are profiting from something that you do not own.  If we choose to develop and provide host-based processing features with certain sound cards and not others, that is a business decision that only we have the right to make.

Although you say you have discontinued your practice of distributing unauthorized software packages for Creative sound cards we have seen evidence of them elsewhere along with donation requests from you.  We also note in a recent post of yours on these forums, that you appear to be contemplating the release of further packages.  To be clear, we are asking you to respect our legal rights in this matter and cease all further unauthorized distribution of our technology and IP.  In addition we request that you observe our forum rules and respect our right to enforce those rules.  If you are in any doubt as to what we would consider unacceptable then please request clarification through one of our forum moderators before posting.

Phil O’Shaughnessy
VP Corporate Communications
Creative Labs Inc.

Forum Moderator
Creative Labs

Well that’s really sad if you ask me. Grab them while you can, while the links are still available. Many thanks to daniel_k for all his hard work. Creative Labs even grudge us modding old drivers it seems. Come on lets all return the favour and buy new Creative soundcards… NOT

Pffft

Police Brutality or Yob Culture?

It’s been an eventful weekend, close to where I live, in Great Yarmouth. Just to be clear, when a tractor gets stuck in a ditch, it causes excitment around these parts.

This weekend saw an illegal rave at a local industrial estate. The “ravers” broke in to a warehouse, set up their DJ equipment and started to party. I’ve added this video illustrating a few pill-popping hippies at the “Brains Kan Nuscence” rave. This video was taken just before the police arrived.Anyway, to break up this rave, the police arrested 3 people in possession of sound equipment. It seems the ravers got a little upset, and many of them ended up bleeding and bruised at the hands of the police and their riot shields. Subsequently, an angry mob descended upon the local police station, throwing bottles, stones and beer cans.

I understand that breaking and entering is a crime, but seriously, what do they expect hundreds of unemployed youths to do? Many of them come from Great Yarmouth, a town with seasonal employment and zero recreational facilities for locals. It’s no excuse, I understand but to see some of the injured on TV was quite shocking. It seems the police weren’t taking any prisoners.

I couldn’t find a video of the actual riot at the police station, but I saw it on tv. I suspect YouTube were asked to remove it. I did however, find a little clip of the riot police in action at the rave. Half the kids look about fifteen years old. Nice to see tax-payers kids being treated so delicately. Sure, they broke in, broke stuff and caused a lot of mess, but do they really need to all be punished in such a way? Either way, by the time I had posted it, YouTube had deleted it.

Local police authorities released a statement saying:

The arrests are for offences of Violent Disorder, Possession of Illegal Drugs and Taking of a Vehicle Without Consent.

They still have only arrested fifteen people, charged eight and yet they saw fit to beat 200.