An Open Letter to the Amiga Community:

November 3, 1998



Why Amiga's Lazarus Must Never Rise Again



What exactly is Lazarus then?

Quite simply, it is a warez site that makes money by burning CDROMs of copyrighted software, and courting unsuspecting advertisers.

By representing itself as a legitimate enterprise, Lazarus has managed to convince businesses such as Cloanto to advertise on its site. I'm sure its a good business move on Cloanto's part, after all, pirate sites are very popular.

Cloanto is really not to blame though. I truly doubt that Cloanto was given full disclosure with regards to the true nature of Lazarus. So I'll spell it out for them, and anyone else who is thinking of advertising on Lazarus:

Lazarus makes money by pirating software. It has irreparably damaged the Amiga community by providing the world with an entire library of copyrighted Amiga software - all for free. This is clear violation of international copyright law. More importantly, it should make you, as developers, think twice with regard to Lazarus' view of intellectual property rights.

Actually, that's not completely true. Lazarus doesn't provide all its software for free. Lazarus makes a nice profit on the pirate warez it sells on CDROM.

Here is the important part, however:

Amiga Incorporated's technology is licensed for use in a wide range of products, embedded within many pieces of software. The license for proprietary Amiga technologies must be respected, in whatever form they present themselves. It is Lazarus' responsibility to ensure that it has legal right to provide each and every piece of software it offers on its web site, and that no Amiga copyright has been violated.

Lazarus defines Amiga technology in absolute, narrow terms, such as Kickstart ROM images, or Workbench diskettes, which it does not offer. (Well, it doesn't offer them right now. It used to.) However, Amiga's technology, which Amiga has a right to protect, is woven far deeper into the fabric of Amiga software than a mere ROM image. Licenses and contracts between Amiga and developers are still in force, and it is simply impossible for Lazarus to claim blanket impunity for all the software it offers because it does not provide ROM or OS images. As it always has been, the burden of proof is on Lazarus.

As a last minute defense, Lazarus claims that the onus is on copyright holders. That is false. International law protects intellectual property rights worldwide. Shame on you, Lazarus, for such a misrepresentation.

To top it all off, Lazarus' cohorts even took to harassing the good people at The Amiga Web Directory.

The good news:

Thankfully, Gateway has stepped in on Amiga Incorporated's behalf, and the site is closed.

Hopefully it will stay that way. And hopefully, advertisers will steer clear of such shaky pirate ventures in the future.



Sincerely,



William C. Jones



(C) 1998 William C. Jones