---

flowservee wrote:
Creative: You have just succeeded in loosing 1200 corporate customers.

---

Add one more to the looooooooooooooong list of people who will NEVER buy another Creative product.

Bye Creative ... hope this was worth it!

Hello Phil O'Shaughnessy,

I owned everything from Creative's range of products from the 1st SoundBlaster and stopped with buying Creative products after my Audigy 2 ZS + GigaWorks S750. I always enjoyed the quality fo the products, but the last years Creative is particulary is aiming to satisfy itself and certainly not it's customer.

If people carefully read your reaction to Daniel_K they might conclude that it is a business decision from Creative to lie to their faithfull customers about giving them the Vista support for functions they used on the XP platform.

By the way:

(f) Reverse Engineering. -
(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a)(2) and (b), a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent a technological measure, or to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure, in order to enable the identification and analysis under paragraph (1), or for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such interoperability, to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title.
(3) The information acquired through the acts permitted under paragraph (1), and the means permitted under paragraph (2), may be made available to others if the person referred to in paragraph (1) or (2), as the case may be, provides such information or means solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section.
(4) For purposes of this subsection, the term ''interoperability'' means the ability of computer programs to exchange information, and of such programs mutually to use the information which has been exchanged.

Source

Anyways, you're properly screwed yourself all ways now:

- People don't want to buy products that get outdated on future OS's in 2-4 years although you promised it on the box(that's called lying to customers imho)

- People could start a class law act against Creative to let them keep their promise

- People like Daniel_K could get support from nice lawfirms who see a loophole by means of the above law text (US Code: Title 17, section 1201 to be precise) and force to getfully working products or a cashback on your whole range of previous cards like the Audigy 2 series.

It's just a matter of time now before loosing customers that are a victim of your stupendous "business decision" and getting a nice invitation to court. In the meanwhile I'm not being anymore of your stuff.

To be helpfull, here's a list of alternatives for the Creative P's.O.S around if this whole story has fed you up with Creative (like it triggered me a bit ):

X-Fi series: M-Audio cards, ESI, Asus Sonar cards, maybe Auzentech if Creative let them develop their own drivers

Speaker series: Logitech or any simple amplifier + speakers (better quality anyways)

Mediaplayers: Apple, iRiver, Cowon, Samsung, Sony etc.

Headphones/Headsets: Logitech, Sennheiser, AKG

Webcams: Microsoft, Logitech, Axis, Eminent, Linksys

Anyways: I'm very thankfull for your effort on elaborating Creative's point of view on their customers. Now I just have to let people read this and they will buy something else. I'm just wondering.. how did it get this far. Or are you working secretly for Logitech, that would explain a lot

ps from KX Project:

Well I wandered back over after more than a year since I just saw this on digg. UNBELIEVABLE. Creative, you take THIS long to react, and still have not managed to do what daniel_k did so long ago? Come on. Were it not for his work, I would have junked my X-Fi long ago. It's thanks to his work I can use this expensive card that was left fairly useless thanks to your laziness when I moved to Vista (now Server 2008). Does his work do you any harm?

Well, yes. Okay there is that fact that your reputation is quite deservedly shot over the X-Fi debacle.
So I'll make this point: Unless you're prepared to actually get around to giving us the functionality we paid a premium for now, do the sensible community-spirited thing and allow others to do it for you. Personally I think I'll be mirroring those drivers for all unless you have some for us yourselves.

Utterly disgusting treatment.

Funny thing about this is that it would have been cheaper for Creative Labs to just let him get voluntary donations than deal with the financial loss they are going to feel now from customer backlash. For that matter it probably would have still been cheaper to just hire him.

I'm a male and therefore have unlicensed testicles that I do not pay royalties for. Suck my unlicensed testicles.

Please and thank you. this post uses 247b of data that will cost this company money to store and serve up to

visitors of this thread.

Wow, Creative didn't just shoot themselves in the foot with this, they completely blew it off. They better start with the bandages quick or they're not gonna have a leg to stand on.

Coming out and basically saying "Stop developing working drivers, because we don't want our products to work on Vista" is about the most moronic thing I have ever heard. Yes, it's not uncommon for companies to stop supporting older hardware, but jeez, it seems here that even your new hardware doesn't work worth a **bleep** and when someone fixes it you try to drive them away.

I think I'm going to shy away from Creative products, if not for this blatant "screw the consumer" attitude, then because your drivers are apparently garbage and not worth the money we paid for them.

This is truly sad...

While I understand that Creative does not want daniel_k to take donations on this software, I firmly believe they have done nothing but add insult to the Vista community's injury.

I personally have purchased and installed Creative products in all of my PCs since I was old enough to put it together, and combined with the numerous MP3 players I have purchased I no doubt have given Creative several hundred dollars in the past few years alone.

I realize to a company this size my business will not be missed, but I would like it to be very well known that I am fed up with the complete lack of support for my hardware in Vista. I did not purchase this X-Fi XtremeMusic at full retail price, the week it was available, to have support for it dropped so fully when the next Windows rolled around. I could completely understand this were the X-Fi series not, seemingly, Creative's flagship line. I feel shorted and hurt every time I hear my sound skip when watching a movie or playing a game. I feel insulted every time the Creative control panel forgets my settings and I end up listening to stereo, instead of 5.1 stereo. Lastly, I feel downright disgusted that a community member has stepped up to help where Creative refuses to, only to be smacked down with a pleasantly worded Cease and Desist.

So it is with this, a post that will more than likely never be read, I say goodbye to my Creative products. I have already placed my order on Newegg for a Xonar, and will make sure all of my friends do the same when they upgrade their sound solutions. Oh, and I just bought a Zune, as well. Welcome to a world where you no longer monopolize the sound-card market. I like it better here.

I own a Sound Blaster Live, and Audigy 2 and an X-Fi Platinum. Every time I have tried to install a new Creative card I have had to spend hours trying to get the drivers to install properly. I have never experienced such bad software support either with drivers or programs from any company, ever. Not even crappy hole in wall NIC companies from rural China. And of course now that someone has gone to the trouble of doing what you were to incompetent to do, you send him a cease and desist, because it impinges on your grifting.

So, screw the EAX. I'll go with someone who has respect for their customers next time. Never, again Creative.