If you have been following the fiasco between Creative and a modder who released modified drivers to enable latent functionality on the soundcard products, you may be interested in some recent statements made by said modder, and how he and Creative have more or less come to a friendly agreement.
Driver modification, while not sanctioned by any sane hardware company, is sometimes largely ignored by manufacturers. There is a veritable laundry list of third-party Nvidia and ATI graphics drivers, and often times people with older hardware find the modded driver as their only option for running newer or alternative operating systems. Ultimately, it would seem to us that someone taking the time to improve a piece of hardware with better software is praising the company that made that hardware in the first place, not trying to steal their business.
Regardless, it seems bad business and terrible PR for a company that is already floundering to try and punish people obviously dedicated to the brand.