Creative Software Modder Daniel_K Gone for Good

[malware]

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.

Originally Posted by Daniel Kawakami

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.

Source: Creative Forums

[echo75]

very sad if you ask me, it is actually a negetive move on the part of creative that will cost them some PR.

[ShinyG]

What can I say but: "THANK YOU" CREATIVE!
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.

[ghost101]

Creative's intellectual property. Well within their rights to do what they want. Imagine if people had been reverse engineering microsoft's code, I doubt people would have been so sympathetic.

[tkpenalty]

SIGH. Profit minded Creative are set to get deflated by ASUS pretty soon if they keep this up.

What creative is doing is basically the same as making overclocking illegal.

[Jizzler]

Took him this long? I was done with Creative a long time ago

[ghost101]

Originally Posted by tkpenalty

SIGH. Profit minded Creative are set to get deflated by ASUS pretty soon if they keep this up... its basically the same as making overclocking illegal.

No see my above post. The legality of this isnt even close to being ambiguous. It breaks the EULA.

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?

[allen337]

Originally Posted by ghost101

No see my above post. The legality of this isnt even close to being ambiguous. It breaks the EULA.

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?

I think omega drivers are still out there? I get beta bios drivers all the time, wonder who makes them? Creative is off my list of anything. And everyone I know will be linked to that forum when they ask me what mp3,sound card,speakers they should buy. I wont support people who dont support us. ALLEN

[mab1376]

creative is a bunch of assholes, they're just jealous because some nobody's drivers are better then theirs.

[robodude666]

Guess its time to buy the ASUS Xonar?

[pagalms]

Or something from Auzentech

[KainXS]

Originally Posted by mab1376

creative is a bunch of assholes, they're just jealous because some nobody's drivers are better then theirs.

I agree, creative has recently been screwing their customers to no end with fake X-Fi cards and such, I will miss Daniel, I'm suprised creative wanted to stop him for correcting their own mistakes and limitations they placed in their cards on purpose.

[Devilsclarinet]

Originally Posted by pagalms

Or something from Auzentech

or HTOmega

[Black Hades]

Originally Posted by tkpenalty

SIGH. Profit minded Creative are set to get deflated by ASUS pretty soon if they keep this up.

What creative is doing is basically the same as making overclocking illegal.

Worse actually. If Microsoft would go as low as Creative it would probably sound like this: "Your Win XP licence is obsolete, windows will now work in reduced functionality mode, please purchase a Vista licence. Have a good day."

[Black Hades]

Originally Posted by pagalms

Or something from Auzentech

Auzentech chip is made by Creative!
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.

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.

[jonmcc33]

Originally Posted by tkpenalty

SIGH. Profit minded Creative are set to get deflated by ASUS pretty soon if they keep this up.

What creative is doing is basically the same as making overclocking illegal.

Much worse actually. They remove a lot of functionality for their sound cards in Vista and try to force people to upgrade their sound card if they want those features back. BAD Creative Labs, very BAD.

[Silverel]

Rumor had it for a while that they were actually working with Daniel_k on these drivers. Guess they changed their mind. Time to go blow up Creatives' forums with another 800 page long thread of disgust and anger...

[imperialreign]

just my $.02


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:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:25:44 +0000
From: forums@customercare.creative.com
To: dkbox2000@hotmail.com
Subject: Stop the redistribution of Creative software



Hi Daniel,



Please stop the redistribution of any Creative software, otherwise we will take legal action against you.



Creative Labs
http://forums.creative.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

[Gam'ster]

A sound card is a component that average users like myself would hardly think of upgrading as often as a gfx card for arguments sake. Once you have a sound card you like and has all the functionality you need why would you upgrade it. Creative just want a piece of the upgrade pie and have been going about doing that in a shady way.

Gam

[allen337]

Originally Posted by imperialreign

just my $.02


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.

Biggest crock of BS i ever heard- you must be a creative suckass.

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

[ghost101]

Originally Posted by allen337

Biggest crock of BS i ever heard- you must be a creative suckass.

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

You CAN make your own drivers from scratch if you wish. You CANNOT modify Creative drivers, that is their intellectual property and you do not own it. You are correct in asserting that you can install whatever drivers you want. That is not the issue and that is why they are targetting Daniel and not individual users.

[Black Hades]

Originally Posted by imperialreign

just my $.02

[...]
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.

The point of upgrading is getting better performance and/or functionality. Not getting the same damn thing for new money on the newer OS.
By your reasoning... should we should also buy our owned games again if we switch to Vista?

[ghost101]

Originally Posted by Black Hades

The point of upgrading is getting better performance and/or functionality. Not getting the same damn thing for new money on the newer OS.
By your reasoning... should we should also buy our games again if we switch to Vista?

Its like purchasing a cable connection and then cleverly maniplulating the software to give you more channels. After all, you have paid for the cable box, connection, tv etc. Why should there be simple software stopping me from recieving all the channels? Just because its physically there, downet mean you own it. After all, the windows vista discs you get have all the OSes right? So I should buy basic, hack the software and get vista ultimate?

I dont understand why people have problems with understanding intellectual property rights.

[Black Hades]

Originally Posted by ghost101

Its like purchasing a cable connection and then cleverly maniplulating the software to give you more channels. After all, you have paid for the cable box, connection, tv etc. Why should there be simple software stopping me from recieving all the channels? Just because its physically there, downet mean you own it. After all, the windows vista discs you get have all the OSes right? So I should buy basic, hack the software and get vista ultimate?

I dont understand why people have problems with understanding intellectual property rights.

Your analogy is faulty, and you missed the whole point.
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.

[Psychoholic]

Pulled my audigy 2 zs, and now running onboard intel HD audio, i have to say it sounds great in vista.

If i can help it ill never buy another creative product.