A friend of mine is using Unity as a hobby, and he has Unity Pro. As he frequently uses pirated software like CS6 I suspect that Unity is cracked as well. I believe he is using 4.0 but I don’t know as I haven’t had too close of a look.
Should I intervene and say something and/or report him to UT? I don’t want to do anything too rash as I’m not 100% positive (this is in fact a speculation) but I don’t want him doing this as I find it wholly immoral, especially considering what you can do in Unity Free.
Pirating CS6 is a little different from pirating Unity Pro. With CS6 it’s much harder to tell that the finished product was made with a pirated version. If by some miracle your friend makes a successful game with a pirated version of Unity Pro we can tell fairly easily.
People are going to pirate software. This isn’t going away any time soon. As a software developer it’s frustrating… as a student or someone starting out it’s fairly common (I was definitely no angel myself while first starting out). But these days with free versions of high quality software at your disposal there’s really no excuse.
My biggest pet peeve with this though is people on this forum that are clearly using a pirated version of Pro and getting help from other people or even Unity developers. For some reason that feels like a personal insult. And to anyone doing this please be aware that your UDN account is tied to your Unity license.
That being said, no, we don’t want people reporting their friends or other people they know to be using a pirated version of Unity. We are primarily concerned with sites that are hosting these pirated versions.
morally speaking, you should intervene in some way (within reasonable boundries). (not doing anything while knowing, makes you guilty aswel)
But… try to find evidence first, before pointing finger (and do something about it). Question him about it, to find out if he indeed is using a pirated copy.
(maybe he is using Unity (free edition), of the beta of version 4 (also free).) If however you have evidence he is using a pirated copy, try to talk sense into him.
Perhaps he does not realize what the impact of using pirated software is. (especially if his friend (you) doesn’t like this behavior). perhaps he might not know about the free edition.
Whatever you do, make sure you have given him the chance to change, or solve the situation (e.g. by removing the copy from his system, or reverting to a legal copy), in a reasonable timeframe. If he does nothing, or doesn’t agree with you, you can take more official actions (e.g. reporting him to Unity tech, with detailed information)
but how far you go, is up to you, you might loose a friendship in the process, just to keep that in mind.
Of course it is easier to get away with pirating CS6 but the point remains it is still pirated software. It’s not like he’s a newbie and is just starting out, either. He has been programming (though not necessarily with Unity) for some time and has the “oh, I hate trials so I’ll just download the full version and if I like it then I’ll pay for it” mentality. However, I believe he rarely pays for anything.
Not that I would EVER use pirated Unity software (I hold a valid key and can demonstrate this to any admin) I am interested in how you know it was pirated. Is the key somehow embedded in the player software? That way if someone posts a binary you can easily check? Or is it limited to screenshots and seeing what features they shouldn’t have?
Regarding the license being tied to the UDN account, wouldn’t that depend on what account you used to purchase it? It would be more than easy to create a new account and do your posting separate from the account that holds your key, if one exists at all.
I don’t approve piracy, but ratting on a friend is worse than pirating software, imho. If it pisses you off so much, you should just talk to him. If he ignores you, he’s your friend, and that’s his choice.
Not sure how you interpreted my comment. Anyway, what I mean is that you are clearly very pissed with your friend. But since he’s a friend, you should just talk to him, whatever he did, instead than going behind his back. That’s kind of the basis of a friendship, imo.
Your saying he’s using it as a hobby, then I would not worry about it.
If he would be using it professionally that would be risky on his part, even then I would not worry in the way you do, I would be concerned for him but eventually let him make his own choices.
How do you know it’s the full version? The Unity 4 Beta is free for public use now and has been for awhile. At any rate, no offense, but what business is it of yours; this is a problem with so many people out there… have less concern for what he’s doing and more concern with completing your own game…Surely you don’t expect your friendship to last by reporting him and he’s likely to see this thread as well. You should have contacted Unity privately… not publicize this all across the internet, but in reality the first thing you should do is speak to your friend instead of accusing him of anything to begin with. Some people just can’t afford the high prices when all they want to do is learn unrestricted (he should apply for student license then IMO, if Unity offers them).
This is starting to sound more like a “my friend did X” type post
The account is tied to a specific license (regardless of how many you have) so the new account doesn’t really circumnavigate anything in this regard. But these instances aren’t being actively hunted down… it’s more obvious when someone posts something like “i imported my blender charactor… it suks ballz i know so dont hate… butt whi does depth by feeld effekt look so shite in my sene?”. Ok, you’re 14 and pirated Unity Pro, well done.
If on the other hand you are a serious developer and release a game made with a pirated version of Unity Pro we will be notified.
If he’s only dabbling, who really cares? he was never going to buy a licence anyway. Better to have someone playing with something and getting interest, even if its not going to generate a sale, it might generate one indirectly.
Lets pretend he got his dodgy copy first, you see it, decide it excites you, you buy a licence. He’s effectively made a sale for Unity.
If he wants to take it seriously and release something, he will have to pay for it. If he doesn’t well nothing gained/nothing lost.
If one of my friends ratted me for pirating software then, like anyone else on the internet, i’ve been no angel, i’d question that friend sooner than my own morality. If you release anything for serious with a cracked copy of Unity Pro, and i’m told its very easy for Unity to find out, it could have woeful repercussions for your professional life, or at least cause massive inconvenience, an example being google being informed of your activities, your google developer account is tied to you physical address. For a bunch of people getting that shut down would be a huge pain in the ass (It would for me). When youre ready for Unity Pro you’d have the funds
I can say that right now at the company I work for there isn’t a single pirated license of anything, anywhere. Every piece of software, no matter how small, or how many times duplicated on different workstations is a legitimate license being used within it’s defined legal bounds. We have tens of thousands of dollars in licenses of applications and put down $3,000 for the single license of Unity iOS Pro I use.
But I sure as hell wouldn’t be at this point in my career if I didn’t pirate a ton of stuff in my teenage and early college years, a long time ago. It seriously gave me a huge leg up and step forward in learning and becoming proficient with this stuff, and producing a professional level portfolio to get hired somewhere. I feel I personally owe so much thanks to the pirate community for where I am at today. It perturbs me a little bit when I see big names in CG talking down to all the ‘pirates’ and condemning them. The amount of proffesional CG artists I have encountered in my lifetime who admit to starting out and learning on a pirated copy of something is pretty significant. I don’t see why so many places want to see this as a ‘taboo’ and shuffle it under the rug. I wish the industry would more readily recognize this is occurring, and is actually a necessary part to the growth of the CG industry for new and young generations, and accommodate it accordingly.
Which Unity actually has accommodated it with their free version.
So pirating Unity does seem a bit unnecessary because there is the free version. When I first got into Unity, I learned on the free version until I got good enough to get hired at a company that would buy me the Pro version. Unity Free does offer enough in it to produce adequate level portfolio work, and games, to get hired somewhere. So in a way it’s a bit inexcusable to be pirating unity for any reason.
But I don’t necessarily condemn your friend as much because of this, I know what it’s like to be 16 years old and want to get going at 3D work. I’d assume he is just in the habit of pirating software to learn it, without realizing that Unity Free really is sufficient for learning.
As for ‘turning him in’… really? You expect Unity to prosecute some kid for playing around with a pirated licenses of their software?
This is how software piracy lawsuits work, if the company can get enough money from the lawsuit to justify the cost of time and lawyers to go through with that lawsuit, then they will do it, otherwise, they won’t. So basically you need some company that has ATLEAST like $100,000 in pirated software for it to be considered.
He’s not 16, actually, he’s much older than that. Not only teenagers pirate, you know.
I informed him that Unity Free is a good option, but he says that it is not sufficient because of the lack of a profiler and dynamic shadows and other things… Whatever. I suppose based on what you guys have said in this said in this thread that it’s none of my business, but still… I don’t know. I’ll leave him alone.
I didn’t know this but it’s not always the case as. I normally ask questions under this account( mainly not to embarrass the company with my noob questions and bad gramma) but I own pro licences under the company’s name. So my UDN wont show a pro licence even though I legally own them.
