Originally Posted by Agent 
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Creative cripple the older cards under Vista compared to XP. Bloke adds back the functionality. Creative accuses him of theft..
That's not the way I read what they said.
If cards had the functionality under XP and you don't get it under Vista, but he released drivers that enable it, Creative said they have no problem ... provided users understand it may have problems being supported.
Where Creative have said they have a problem is when unofficial drivers use their IP to enable features that
weren't enabled on the original card, even under XP.
It's not uncommon for manufacturers to release more than one version of a card at more than one price, with the feature set varying accordingly. That allows those that want advanced features and are able and willing to pay for them to have then, but users wanting a more budget version to buy a feature-reduced version. And, clearly, it's far more economical to have one basic card than to engineer multiple versions. If they did, it would drive the price up. So getting the hump at someone who uses their IP to enable features that weren't enabled on the cards the user actually bought seems fair enough. The user of those lower-end cards didn't pay for those features.
Their unwillingness or inability to produce drivers that fully support existing (and recent) products under Vista is pretty pathetic, though.