Cisco warranties are strange creature indeed. In order to get a bug fix on warrantied products, you must have a TAC login. In order to have a TAC login, you must have a smartnet contract. Technically, the warranty is a temporary smartnet contract (I've searched their database using the serial # of new equipment under warranty but not smartnet net, not found it, then called cisco and they pull a smartnet contract number up)
Its really messed up, but what it boils down to is that if you want to get a bug fix and you don't have smartnet, you must go through the reseller you bought from - which is not good because it means without any smartnet you are vulnerable to the next thing that arises. No smartnet, no security, warranty notwithstanding.
Of course, if you do have a TAC login, you can get warrantied equipment added to your userid, but its a manual process and annoying at best. You still need a TAC ID from another smartnet contract though.