<Seeding torrent>....

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/38375297/?tab=summary

This has made my decision much easier.... iPod it is. I had been debating between the a creative mp3 player vs an iPod for awhile and was leaning towards the creative.

Phil, the best thing you can do now is to issue an apology to everyone here and to Daniel_K most of all. Also I might suggest to you to read Guy Kawasaki's books and watch his presentations on youtube (as far as I know he is not threatening youtube with any legal action).

One point Guy makes is for companies to not anger customers when they start using their own products in ways they themselves did not intend, instead use it to your benefit! The most dangerous thing for a company to do is to upset their customer base by re-acting in a negative way, because then people will stop caring about your company and your products and they will move on to someone else that will cater to the business model and customer relations that you could have had. In one post you went from a company that mattered to one that people could care less about.

Daniel_K was not a danger to you, he was a great and wonderful opportunity for your company to keep customers happy and coming back. Instead you have turned this situation into a bad one. I hope your company has enough dignity and respect for its customers to do the right thing, even if you think it is wrong, you need to realize that once a customer has purchased a product and owns it, there is no right or wrong in how he uses it, because at the end of the day he just wants it to work or work even better than expected and if you think that is a bad and you did not expect to lose customers over it then you are INSANE.

I promise you that if you make an official apology I won't hold this against you and I will consider your products again, any company can make a mistake and should not be judged by one employee.

Good luck, and I look forward to a mass email sent out to all of us in my inbox with an apology.

Also stop blaming the weak US dollar for your profit loss, if I had any shares with you I'd take them out immediately (however by looking at how you have performmed over the last 2 to 3 years I'd have already done that).

Phil O'Shaughnessy, many understand that you must protect your IP and licensed IP but by responding in such a disrespectful manner you've deeply damaged your brand image.

Your brand image is one of your biggest assets. You are under threat in all your buisnesses but customer loyality has to be worth something to you in dollars and cents. Most new games do not support your cards at all. Most of the features on your cards can be attained by competiting cards for less money. All of your mp3 players are now inferior to competitors. Your drivers are generally lacking... and so many other places where you've dropped the ball or are under threat.

You could have been a LOT nicer. You owed that to him. In fact, you probably should offer him a job unless your own people have been instructed to screw up many of your drivers on purpose. I've been a loyal creative customer for over 10 years and have bought and recommended many of your products over the years. Because I don't think you're taking these messages seriously, I'm going to express my opinion in a manner that is likely to matter to you. I will not buy your products until you reverse course.

I hope understand what a serious mistake you've made here and fix it. No hard feelings... it's just that there seems to be a communication problem and this is the only way to fix it.

Sincerely, thousands of dollars of profits going to your competitors.

I just found about this thread on Digg.com and obtained login info to the forum from bugmenot dot com to post my $0.02 worth:

I have been using, buying, building, and modifying computers ever since the TRS-80 and Commodore Vic-20 hit the market. As a Senior Manager for one of the "Big 4" financial firms, I have advised literally thousands of my clients, business associates, coworkers, and friends regarding PC hardware purchases. I have been a loyal user and staunch advocate of Creative products until this very minute. After reading this thread and seeing how poorly Creative has handled the situation, I will no longer purchase or recommend Creative products. In fact I will advise against them at every opportunity. This was a very poor decision by Creative and one that will ultimately cost them dearly.

Let's bring this up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A3D

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Creative Labs sued Aureal for patent infringement in March of 1998[1], and Aureal countersued for patent infringement and deceptive trade practices. Aureal won the lawsuit brought by Creative in December of 1999. However, the cost of the legal battle caused Aureal's investors to cease funding operations, forcing Aureal into bankruptcy. Creative then acquired Aureal's assets in September of 2000 through the bankruptcy court with the specific provision that Creative Labs would be released from all claims of past infringement by Creative Labs upon Aureal's A3D technology. While Creative Labs has not chosen to support the A3D API, the underlying advanced features of A3D technology is making its way into Creative Labs' newer EAX incarnations.

---

A3D never went anywhere, Creative buried the technology because they figured some of their customers might have wanted it.

Shame on you Creative, shame shame shame on you!

I registered now solely to help out the world community. Anyone that uses a computer or any electronic that creative may have.

Creative has the worst Business model I've ever seen. Ever. No other company compares in HORRIBLE customer service. Hell, Creative DOESN'T EVEN CARE ABOUT IT'S CUSTOMERS AND PRODUCTS!!!

I sincerely hope any other distributors of 'Creative' products can switch to other, more backed up, and superior manufacturers. Auzentech comes to mind, as their tech support actually answers and have better sounding sound cards.

For speakers, go to Logitech. I dislike any PC speaker setup, but if you have to get one get a Logitech setup. Well, anything else besides Creative really.

For portable music players, get the Apple product. They're more refined, they have tech support, they're quality. You get what you pay for. Creative is total crap.

I extremely regret ever buying the X-fi I bought 2 years ago. I broke it just right now, broke it in half. Yes, a fully 'working' product (Psh, any Creative product is total crap right now, what am I talking about.. They never really WORKED PROPERLY!)

Anyone out there, boycott against this Creative crap. They don't deserve our money nor attention and recommendation.

Wow. For so long Creative always got my vote for quality products and good service but, with my last 2 products the Vision:M and the X-FI on Vista, I am less than satisfied. Crappy support forces people to find their own fixes. What's sad is that people have to make their own fixes for products that we pay good money for. Well, I ended up making my own data and video cable for my Vision:M and will prolly sell my audio card for cheap to get something else that I want. I would say that you should give Daniel_K a job but after a response like the one given he's prolly not the type of person who would want to work for you. I will take my business elsewhere and inform others (since they come to me for advice) that they should go elsewhere.

It's been nice knowing you Creative. Thx for tarnishing all those good memories or good products. blah.

Begin Block Quote:

Although I agree it is a sad day to see a driver modder get punished for helping people, I think it is unfair to "bash" Creative on this. For a few reasons.

1) The licence agreement which we all accept to says that we must not reverse engineer or tamper with the software as it is the property of Creative Labs.

2) I firmly believe that Daniel K has caught the flack because of the Dolby Digital feature As far as I am aware Auzentech paid a lot of money for an exclusive licence with Dolby to have their cards support this. Now, Creative would get into trouble if they allow a means for this to be "cracked" to run on non-Auzentech cards.

3) Accepting money (even in the form of donations) for someone elses copyrighted material is a big NO NO.

As for the whole driver XP vs Vista debate.

Begin Retaliatory Remarks:

>> Tamper, is being used in it's broadest sense to penalize the endeavours of an individual. The strongest synonym for tamper is interfere, and it's predominant meaning is, as quoted from dictionary.com, to meddle, esp. for the purpose of altering, damaging, or misusing (usually fol. by with): Someone has been tampering with the lock.

Now, if the lock will not secure the bicycle it is not tampering (in it's most linear/logical sense) to fix the cylinder so that the bicycle is secured. However, if the lock is good, it is tampering to drill it out and steal the bicycle. Of course, in it's broadest sense, the word tamper does in fact prohibit the single-sided endeavour to accomplish a greater good.

2) Licensing agreements are not universal in nature. If I ebay an item and have it shipped to another country, that does not respect licensing agreements or patents, then I should be free to install any third party software I so choose, understanding that I inherit all risks of using unsupported third party products (No, IANAL)

3) The nature of donations is not to pay for a work. I do not give to church because they gave a sermon. I give out of a desire to support a mission. Similarly, if someone puts a jar on a counter at a gas station, I do not give money in the jar and expect my beer to be discounted (pick whatever is closest to your natural personality). A donation is not explicitly or implicitly tied to any particular deed, it is an unsolicited gift to support an individual or organization with which you deem appropriate. You can not say "Hey don't give money to the cripple, because he might qualify for a make-a-wish foundation field trip before he dies and [our institution] prohibits any such effort to give money to his cause.

It's been more than 5 years since I bought a creative product, and if not for this disgusting and tasteless thread involving creative shirking and screwing someone genuinely interested in helping make it's hardware work I wouldn't have even bothered registering on this board.

Kudos to you indie-programmer.

Hope you don't get sent to jail or have your pooter stolen by creative, but just in case I recommend wiping all your source code and just sending out an email that says "dear users: creative says I need to go kill myself or get sued. So I am going to cease and decist" or something along those lines.

-Maz

On a personal note, I went through something very similar with VAIO. If I license your hardware, then upgrade a third party component (ie: the windows operating system) your license does not prohibit me from continuing to use the hardware to which I own a legitimate license. It might prohibit me from sharing the information, but like sony, if [insert company name] gets **bleep** retentive regarding my rights to use the product I purchase with my own money, then I simply refuse further dealings with said company.

You've made my list, for all of the maybe 100-500$ you might would have sucked out of me over the next 2 decades creative.