Yes, you read the title correctly.

If you thought Amazon was focused on home delivery by aerial drones, you could be surprised to learn that an Amazon legal agreement also has a clause anticipating a zombie apocalypse.

This gem can be discovered after reading a mere 57.10 sections of Amazon’s Web Service Terms, and it is reproduced below:

57.10 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.

(emphasis added)

Strictly speaking, the clause doesn”t use the word “zombie”, but we all know what Amazon is thinking, right?

But what is Amazon thinking?

There are several theories.

One is that putting something outlandish into a contract gets people to read it more carefully. This seems psychologically sound, but I doubt Amazon’s goal is to get more people scrutinizing its contract.

Another explanation is that someone is having fun while writing mind numbingly dull contracts that almost no one reads. As a former author of those kinds of contracts, that’s my theory.

There’s another possibility.

Does mighty Amazon know something about a zombie apocalypse that we don’t…?

Who says contracts can’t be fun?

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