I was thinking about putting some of the scripts I have made with Unity (Free version) up on the asset store for others. With any luck I might make enough money to buy my self a copy of Unity PRO with the profits. However reading though all the licences, I’m sensing a potential problem.
The licence for Unity Pro states:
If you are a Legal Entity, you may not combine files developed with the free version of Unity with any files developed by you (or by any third party) through the use of Unity Pro.
That seems to mean that an Indi game studio operating under an LLC and utilizing the Pro version of unity couldn’t use the stuff that I’d be placing on the asset store because I created it with the Free version. Then again, said Indi studio wouldn’t have any way of knowing this, as the asset store doesn’t mention it.
The intent of that passage is to prevent teams from developing a game where instead of buying Pro for the whole team, they buy only one copy of it. That guys does the shadows and other advanced features, and the bulk of the game is done on the free version.
However, as worded it seems to outlaw scripts and other assets from being redistributed via the Asset Store. Under that interpretation you wouldn’t even be able be able to export a package for Pro users to download from free from your website.
I don’t think that is what was meant. As evidence of that, they give away Basic with the expectation that some people will eventually buy Pro and upgrade their projects. A strict interpretation of the license wouldn’t even allow that!
So I think one-way, one-shot importing of independently-developed Basic assets into Pro by unrelated users is clearly intended to be legal. But I’m not a lawyer, and the contract says what it says. It would be best to confirm by contacting Unity3D’s marketting department, and/or whichever department manages the asset store. They really should change the license wording, or explain to us why the existing wording is correct.
(Another way of interpreting it is that scripts are text files that are separate from Unity, just like 3d models, PNGs, and MPEGs are. Under that reading you could sell scripts along with other assets. That’s nice if true, but the larger question still stands when it comes to exporting a package from Unity and selling that, or including a demo project among the files you sell.)