Amazon’s Updated Terms Of Service Have A Zombie Apocalypse Clause

Amazon has released a new free game engine and development tool called Lumberyard with visual technology based on CryEngine, a commercial package that’s used by studios like Bethesda and 2K. The only catch here is that games created with this engine can’t read or write data to competing cloud services. Amazon also updated the terms of service for its AWS cloud offering and just to make sure it has all bases covered, it threw in a zombie apocalypse clause as well.

Under section 57.10 of the AWS terms of service, Amazon notes that it doesn’t intend for developers to use Lumberyard code for medical equipment, airplanes, driverless cars or nuclear facilities, adding that Lumberyard materials also shouldn’t be used for manned spacecraft or military use in live combat.

That’s not the interesting bit. The interesting bit is that Amazon says these restrictions will no longer apply if there’s a zombie apocalypse because then sticking to terms of service would be the least of your worries. Here’s what the clause says:

“However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization”.

It’s up to you to decide the chances of that actually happening, and if it does, well Amazon won’t say anything to you for using Lumberyard materials for any of the purposes that it has restricted you from in its terms of service.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Amazon