Amazon Web Services: Zombie apocalypse would nullify Lumberyard’s terms of service

By Steve Pak / 1455188460
(Photo : Twitter) Amazon's AWS terms of service now includes a zombie apocalypse clause

Amazon's video game development software is connected to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. The tech giant's Lumberyard game engine includes strict rules but the terms of service would be waived in the case of a zombie attack.

Lumberyard is Amazon's new open-source software. The platform is designed to build 3D video games for self-driving cars or heart-lung medical equipment, according to USA Today.  

AWS' terms of conditions include a new section. It states the Lumberyard platform cannot be used for safety-critical or life-saving equipment including military weapons or spacecraft, according to NBC News.

However, the biggest change is the zombie clause in section 5710. It would involve the spread of a viral infection by bites or bodily fluids exchanged from "human corpses."

The zombies would bite people to come back to life by eating a person's blood, nerve tissue, flesh, or brain. Based on the clause that act by the undead creature would also have to probably result in the fall of human civilization and the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) would have to certify the virus.

The vast majority of the terms of service for AWS includes a lot of technical details and legal terms. However, the light-hearted sentence in the 26,000-word document has served as free advertising for the new Lumberyard platform.   

Amazon had released a beta version of the Lumberyard platform. One key condition of the Software Development Kit (SDK) is that games developed cannot read or write data to rival cloud services.

Lumberyard is being offered free so developers use AWS cloud services. The SDK includes C++ application program interfaces (APIs) for several of them.

Amazon has not made any official comments about the update to the terms of services. However, the new clause shows that the company has a sense of humor.  

In 2011 the CDC also used zombies in documents to help prepare the public for natural disasters including tornadoes, hurricanes, and influenza outbreaks. At first the documents were getting little attention.

Thus the CDC released an entertaining guide. It included tips to help prepare people for a zombie apocalypse and an outbreak it called Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome (ANSDS).     

Here's a first look at Amazon Lumberyard: