This is what UDK EULA writes:
“However, no royalty is owed on the following forms of revenue:
…
7. Revenue from donations for a Product which are not tied to Product access or in-Product benefits; …”
This is what Unity writes:
“If you are accepting the terms of this Agreement for use of Unity Personal, you represent and warrant that:
…
3. if you are an individual (not acting within a role in a Legal Entity) or if you are accepting the term on behalf of a Legal Entity as a Sole Proprietor, the annual gross revenues from your or its use of the Software do not exceed of US$100,000 during the most recently completed fiscal year (including in any equivalent currency), which does not include any income made which is not related to its use of the Software.”
It doesn’t specify if donations are considered “revenues” or not. I don’t expect to be donated that much and if i would, i would probably donate something to the software developers as well but it made me wonder.
Some official opinion or link to it if it has already been discussed (google didn’t show anything) would be really appreciated.
If you’re not a charity, anything you receive is income anyway. But if you actually get $100000 in donations, paying for Pro isn’t that much of a problem
As orb pointed out, if your income (from any source) is over 100k, you purchase Unity pro. And if it’s over 100k, it’s not a problem is it? it is 1.5% of your income at that point, and only needs to be paid once.
No, you don’t get it. Problem isn’t giving up some money. The question is about principle and karma. Question is about buying and free stuff. It is huge difference if i pay voluntarily or if i’m supposed/forced to pay. The same way charity and tax are completely different things.
I have donated laptop and mouse and i want to make free games with free software. That’s the point. I don’t expect to get paid because i’m going to do everything for fun. If people like it and want to pay for it then that’s up to them. I want the same experience - to pay voluntarily.
This is very weird, because i have been capitalist my whole life. But now i think: what if commercialism is the reason gaming and general quality of things have been degraded over time? If people are doing things to get paid they can do less things they like and appreciate. I’m sure i could be more financially successful if i would stick to more traditional business models but i’m not that sure any more i want to make business at all. I think about the games i have pirated and later bought the real thing once i got the money and the games i have bought and later regretted because they were utter crap.
Selling ads and “free to play/in app purchases” would be one way to give “consumer” “free” stuff but there’s something lacking. If you would think about it, paying for some unnecessary digital “item” is waste of money but if you are paying for actual experience and feel gratitude and generosity at the same time then that is actually priceless. Or if you can support a cause. I have actually bought games that i have never played because i liked one company and some of their other games.
One of the things, besides being super simple to use, i liked Unity for being free. For the principle. For the karma. But now i’m not sure if it’s really free or not. And again - once i would make something myself, i wouldn’t mind giving something in return. The difference would be between donation and a purchase. I hope this explained it a bit.
I’m not saying like Unity would be some evil corporation if they won’t give us everything for free and starve their families. Lol I don’t think Unity should give anything away for free and the “demo” version is so good that you can’t even call it demo any more. But i would want to pay something to unity even if i don’t get that 100k. I suppose i could buy that pro for someone else then.
I’m well aware that nothing is actually free in this world. If i want quality then i probably have to buy some assets or hire a artist/composer/coder etc. anyway. No point giving something away for free if it’s s**t.
AFAIK Unity do not accept donations. If you do receive donations that is classed as revenue. If you receive $100,000 of revenue in the previous year you must pay for pro. That’s pretty much it. If you do want to give something back to the developers, spread the word of how great the engine is, submit bug reports and provide useful contributions to the forum and the answers website.
