Amazon’s terms of service regarding its new Lumberyard game engine pretty much cover all the bases – including ways the software can be used during a Zombie apocalypse. That’s right, if the undead suddenly manage to take over the earth, Amazon says all bets are off with regard to how you can use its game development platform.
On Monday, Amazon updated its terms of service including stipulations about Lumberyard use ( Section 57 ). The terms include some interesting acceptable use clauses which state the software is not intended for use with “life critical or safety-critical systems,” and includes examples such as the operation of medical equipment, autonomous vehicles, aircraft spacecraft, or live combat. In short, Lumberyard is meant to be a video game development platform, not something for creating, testing or using with real-world situations or critical systems.
But in Amazon’s ever-so-cheeky style , the terms of service include a hidden easter egg: a voiding clause , which allow users to do anything they’d like with the platform if a zombie apocalypse occurs:
“The Lumberyard Materials are not intended for use with life-critical or safety-critical systems, such as use in operation of medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, aircraft or air traffic control, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat. 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.”
The clause was first noticed and shared on Twitter by writer and podcaster, Diane Patterson and the tweet has since been retweeted thousands of times.
Amazon knows something we don’t.
— Diane Patterson (@DianePatterson) February 9, 2016
Read Clause 57.10 https://t.co/DvtIW2LnRp
If you had any doubt of Amazon’s support of geekdom around the world, this clause should quell it.
