Obsolescence Forcée, Support client et Lynchage en règle.

[Winston]

Creative labs, le célebre fabriquant de carte son (SoundBlaster), s'est mis dans un situation délicate après avoir admis implicitement qu'ils forçaient leur produits à l'obsolescence en refusant de développer des drivers Vista et Linux qui fonctionnent (leur produits affichent pourtant fièrement "Vista Ready"). Creative expliquait qu'il était impossible développer des drivers sous Vista pour les cartes d'ancienne génération.

L'histoire aurait pu s'arreter là si un gentil programmeur (Daniel_K) n'avait décidé de développer des drivers qui fonctionnent sous Vista tout seul chez lui et de les distribuer gratuitement sur le net. Les gens étaient ravis, Daniel_K un héros et tout allait pour le mieux.

La réponse de Creative à été une menace de poursuite en expliquant que le fait de fournir des drivers pourris était une stratégie commerciale (qui vise à forcer les clients à s'équiper de materiel plus récent).

S'en suit un véritable lynchage (et un gros buzz) qui est en train de se dérouler sur leurs forums avec plus de 240 pages de "hateposts" et plus de 2000 clients et fournisseurs ayant promis de ne plus jamais acheter ou vendre des produits Creative.

Du coup Creative est revenu sur sa déscision et a décidé de travailler en collaboration avec Daniel_K pour developper des drivers Vista fonctionnels.

- La menace de Creative :

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.

- Le baissage de froc :

We have read the strong feedback about Creative's forum post regarding driver development by Daniel_k and other outside parties. Creative's message posted on our behalf by our Company spokesperson tried to address our concern about the improper distribution of certain software which is the property of other companies. However, we did not make it as clear as we would have liked that we do support driver development by independent third parties. The huge task of developing driver updates to accommodate the many changes in the Vista operating system and the extensive testing required, including the lengthy Vista certification requirements for audio, makes it very difficult for Creative to develop updates for all past products. Outside developers have been very helpful to Creative and our customers by developing updates for many of our Sound Blaster products, and we do support and appreciate these efforts. This however does not extend to the unauthorized distribution of other companies' property. We hope to work out a mutually agreeable method for working with Daniel_k in supporting his efforts in driver development. Going forward, we are committed to doing a better job of working more closely with third parties to support their development for our products and our customers.

Message Edited by Dale-CL on 04-01-2008 03:49 PM

source

Comme quoi il suffit d'un simple thread sur un forum pour changer la stratégie d'une multinationale… c'est beau le net.

[0100011]

Comme quoi il suffit d'un simple thread sur un forum peut changer la stratégie d'une multinationale… c'est beau le net.

Il semblerait en effet que J. Robb soit dans le vrai avec sa théorie des "global guerillas" contre les structures centralisées. C'est un bel exemple illustrant son point de vue.

[h16]

Excellente illustration de ce que peuvent faire les moyens d'informations actuels en terme de respect des droits de consommation, ou d'amélioration du marché.

[Wallace]

Bel exemple d'auto- régulation d'un marché, par le marché lui même. (Je sais il y a une redondance dans ma phrase).

[pankkake]

Ah tiens bonne nouvelle. Même si je pense quand même déserter Creative pour ma prochaine carte son, car il est assez difficile de trouver une carte son d'eux qui soit bien supportée par Linux, ça dépend trop des modèles. Turtlemachin (j'ai plus le nom en tête) m'a l'air bien plus appétissant.

[Herbert West]

Turtle Beach. Mais c'est surtout des cartes pour home studios, donc ça coûte un peu.

[pankkake]

Il me semble qu'ils font aussi de l'entrée/moyen de gamme, même si c'est sûrement plus cher que Creative dans ce domaine là.