I wish we knew who sent the request and why. I'm always on the lookout for companies to boycott. ;-)
It's always a good idea to get permission before distributing software of any kind, even if the distribution of that software would likely be covered by fair use. Only the owner of a hardware device can make use of a hardware driver, and since the device owner is already an authorized user of the device driver, no law has been broken if they download and use a copy of the driver. If an unauthorized user downloads the software, they can't use it, so there would be no way for the author to prove harm has been done. That doesn't apply to value-added software that isn't required for a hardware device to function, but the definition of "function" is arguable.
Edit: Hopefully, the person who requested the removal of the driver offered an alternative method for authorized users to obtain a copy.
Trev
