USB 2.0 drivers for Win2000,
posted at a couple of other web sites have brought Microsoft's notorious ire
into play. Leaked Win2000, Beta USB 2.0 drivers have been pulled from
both Little White Dog and Digital Silence. Reason: Microsoft has
filed a complaint that contends that both of these web sites are in violation
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
From Little
White Dog
Microsoft filed a complaint
against LWD, stating we violated the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act. To be more specific, we made available the
USB 2.0 Windows 2000 drivers and a set of USB 2.0 Windows XP patches / drivers
a while back, and Microsoft didn't take too kindly to our actions. What
bothers me the most about this, is the fact they when the complaint was filed,
they didn't come to us about it, they went straight to our hosting company.
Doesn't the offending party have a right to know that they've done something
wrong? Doesn't the offending party have a right to know exactly who filed the
complaint, and on what grounds? I'm not saying that posting those drivers was
the right thing to do, I just don't like how the whole thing was handled.
Regardless... all the USB 2.0 drivers and patches have been removed from this
site.
From Digital
Silence
No More Beta W2K USB 2.0 Drivers Posted
April 3, 2002 EST 5:16PM by Agitator!!
After what happened to LittleWhiteDog, my host
has asked me to remove the Win 2K USB 2.0 Beta Drivers we were hosting. Sorry
about that.
No mention of the fact that USB
2.0 drivers from Microsoft were promised long before delivered, on each and
every occasion.
When, the much anticipated, WinXP
USB 2.0 drivers were finally posted in January my inquiry as to when the
drivers for Win2000 would be released was answered, "soon".
February came and went and I wrote again, "soon" was the
response. March has passed and now we are into April and still no
Win2000 USB 2.0 drivers from the "software architects" at Microsoft.
It is my personal belief that
Microsoft is purposely holding back the Win2000 USB 2.0 drivers to force the
public to upgrade to Windows XP. After all, providing USB 2.0 support
for Win2000 essentially, does not line the pockets of the anyone at Redmond,
Washington based firm.
Many Win2000 users,
encouraged by the promise of Microsoft support went out and purchased
expensive new devices only to find that Microsoft did not support them.
Soon was the only response to be had and soon is obviously not very soon at
all.
Granted, Win2000 drivers
are provided by the makers of most USB2.0 PCI cards. Most of these
drivers are proprietary and cannot be installed to any other device. If
you choose to upgrade to USB 2.0 by installing a new motherboard with onboard
USB 2.0 the proprietary PCI card drivers don't help.
Therefore, New Motherboard = New
OS.
Imagine that!
As of this writing, the final
release version of USB 2.0 driver support for Win2000
from Microsoft is still not available.
For a software company, it seems
like Microsoft is a little long on lawyers and a lot short on engineers.
I'm curious, exactly
how many lawyers does it take to write a USB 2.0 driver?
Answer
"soon".
Jeffery Roberts
USBNews
04-03-2002
