Amazon's Lumberyard Terms Include All-Important Zombie Apocalypse Clause

Obviously Amazon wants developers to use its new, free game engine Lumberyard to blow us all away with some virtual reality adventures, but it would prefer you not use the system to run air traffic control systems or medical devices. Unless there’s a zombie apocalypse, then all bets are off.

Buried deep in the thicket of legalese that is any major software release’s Terms of Service is an unassuming paragraph detailing how you’re free to use Lumberyard for all sorts of useful things like operating autonomous cars only if reanimated corpses are feasting on the living. I guess you could still make games too, if you’re the head-in-the-sand type.

Here’s the pertinent clause in Terms of Service point 57.10. (Emphasis is ours.)

Acceptable Use; Safety-Critical Systems. Your use of the Lumberyard Materials must comply with the AWS Acceptable Use Policy. 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.

Certification from the Centers for Disease Control? Amazon’s a bit of an optimist when it comes to the end of the world.