Creative Commons terms for http://wiki.unity3d.com/

On the wiki (http://wiki.unity3d.com/) the stock Wikimedia spiel is given at the bottom (since it uses the Wikimedia system) that all posted content (presumably including code) is distributed under the "sharealike" license, which requires a bunch of stuff including documenting any changes you make and distributing your code under the same license. This pretty much makes it impractical to actually use the code in a large piece of software. I never noticed this license description at the bottom (in tiny print) before using some of the code samples over the last few years, and I'll bet most of the people who posted the code didn't realize it either. It's also just the default Wikimedia notice that all forks of the Wikimedia software have unless you remove it.

Is this license requirement actually binding, or is it just the stock Wikimedia spiel and we can safely ignore it?

 

It is wikipedia spiel, but it is actually binding.

Meaning all of it is unusable.

 

In other words, there's absolutely no point in having the wiki in the first place? How does that make any sense?

 

The wiki is usable in the sense that you can learn how something could work, but you cannot just copy-paste their solution and have to write your own. The wiki definitely shoudln't be used as a source for code snippets or as a platform to share them. Because of the license.

In practice it is highly likely that the license is there by an accident, but accident or not, it is binding. So we have this situation instead.

I'm not using the wiki myself. When I started using unity I did use their json parser until I discovered how aboniably horrible and slow it is.

 

Correct. This is why pretty much no one uses it, and its not maintained.

Unity's web team just really hates the idea of shutting down any old resources.

 

I thought someone from Unity weighed in on this in past, but I can't find it. (and there was talk about clarifying the usage) My understanding (and memory of the comments before) is that license specifies the sharing and attribution of distributing the code represented in the wiki. Like if you were selling a plugin or tool or asset via the asset store or other means. Using the code to generate an executable isn't the same as selling/distributing the source.

The point of the Wiki (and other unity properties) is to help people make games. If you had to provide attribution, source, etc if you used some snippet off the Wiki, the site is completely 100% useless. If you are using to create an asset for developers, the license makes sense. I would say you are fine to use it however you want provided you aren't distributing the source. (though someone like @UnityMaru might be able to clarify if I am way off here).

Practically speaking though, the site has been touched for many years. (apart from a UI script and some link updates). Not sure how useful much of the stuff there is anymore.