Amazon Lumberyard's zombie clause proves it pays to read the fine print
The devil is literally in the details
Who reads end user license agreements (EULA)? Anyone? Well, you might start now, because Amazon just trolled all of us in the service terms for its new game development engine, Lumberyard.
In Section 57.10 of the agreement, as delightfully pointed out by Daring Fireball's John Gruber without context, it is said that this tool cannot be used with "life-critical or safety-critical systems," like medical equipment, air traffic control and military applications.
That is, unless the world is in the event 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."
And the government has to approve it. Seriously, look it up.
The beauty here is that this is both hilarious and, well, dead-ass serious, legally speaking. Amazon's legal team may be joking now, but there damn well better be the servers and bandwidth to get us back on Netflix when everything on this spinning rock goes down the tubes. (Oh, and the power, but they can wing it.)
I can't wait to see the EULA for the next iOS release. How are you going to protect us, Apple?
Via Polygon
Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
- Backlog completed? Here are the best indie games
Joe Osborne is the Senior Technology Editor at Insider Inc. His role is to leads the technology coverage team for the Business Insider Shopping team, facilitating expert reviews, comprehensive buying guides, snap deals news and more. Previously, Joe was TechRadar's US computing editor, leading reviews of everything from gaming PCs to internal components and accessories. In his spare time, Joe is a renowned Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master – and arguably the nicest man in tech.