It seems unlikely that we will one day be plunged into a zombie apocalypse. That a brutal virus causes a pandemic of biblical proportions causing corpses to reanimate eager to suck on the brains of the living. Or maybe yes? At least Amazon contemplates that possibility. And if the eCommerce giant is serious…
AWS (Amazon Web Services) included in its terms of service in 2016 a special clause that is activated only in the event that the corpses are reanimated, consume human flesh and the fall of civilization occurs.
This clause referred to the development of Lumberyard Materials which allows developers to create games that run on their AWS servers. The terms state that Lumberyard is not to be used with drones, medical equipment, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or actual military combat in normal times. But the clause establishes a special exception.
Clause 57.10 of the AWS Terms of Service stated in 2016: “This restriction shall not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor agency) of a generalized viral infection transmitted through bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume live human flesh, blood, brain, or nervous tissue and is likely to lead to the downfall of organized civilization.”
Said clause was renewed at the end of last year and transformed into clause 42.10, following the same text as its predecessor. So if there is a zombie apocalypse, Amazon will allow us to use Lumberyard Materials in the fight against the undead and the survival of humanity. On the other hand, if the end of organized civilization occurs, the AWS servers will most likely be down as well, and there is little we can do with Amazon’s mighty game engine to survive.
Sources: El Diario, The Guardian