License question for freelance work

I've been doing contract work for a studio using my Unity Personal license. I'm going to be sending them the unity package files of my completed work, but they are on Unity Pro. Do I also need to have Unity Pro?

 

I don't think so. The FAQ states:

See also: Mixing Unity tiers in a project?

Since you're an external contractor creating Assets for that studio and not working on their project directly, this should apply to you.


Please keep in mind that I'm neither a lawyer nor a Unity representative. If in doubt, contact Unity directly.

 

Unity replied in the thread mentioned above:

So, according that post, unless you're an actual employee you can continue to use Personal.

 

Ok, awesome. Thank you! That clears it up. I almost spent the $ on the Pro license. Thanks guys.

 

Generally, if you are independently producing a deliverable product that you hand to the customer, rather than being an active participant in their own product development, you can ignore the customer's license tier.

 

The license is pretty clear.

Which means if you work for someone who is required to have a pro license, you are also required to have a pro license.

 

On the other hand a different employee responded with a different statement near the end of the thread.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/mixing-unity-tiers-in-a-project.415676/page-2#post-3342398

Like they said though it's their interpretation and that you should contact support for a real answer.

 

Good point. I just reached out to the Unity Success Advisor team to ask them for a definitive answer from legal. I'll post the answer here when I get it.

 

Basically the way I read it is if you are building something to go on a store, as an online service or as an otherwise stand alone service, you can pretty much use your own license, regardless of customers.

But if you are doing specific work for an individual client o employer, you need to be on at least the level of license the client is on.

 

While it hasn't impacted me directly for a while now, I would really like to see this advance past "we're working on it".

If Unity's staff can't give definitive, non-conflicting answers on their own license then how the heck do they expect their customers to understand and implement it?

 

But in reality, we've had one license blow up in the last five years.

Unity doesn't really have a history of going after the little guys.

 

May I ask in which countries you and the studio are located? This may have bearing on the legal team's answer.

 

According to the Unity Success Advisor team, this is the definitive word from the Legal team:

If you are an individual or a Legal Entity providing services to a third party, your Total Finances is deemed to be your customer or client’s Total Finances.

Unity Software tiers with different Financial Thresholds may not be used at the same time by one entity or individual or for or on behalf of one entity or individual.

If you are a freelance contractor providing services to a third party that uses Unity Pro, you must use Unity Pro to work on the same project.

(Reminder: I'm just passing this along. Don't shoot the messenger. Also, I'm not a lawyer.)

 

That doesn't answer anything without specific definitions for "providing services" and "same project."

For example, I as a Unity user could deliver a coffee to you as another Unity user, providing you a service. You have a hard deadline on a project using Unity Pro, and required the coffee in order to finish work on time. I have provided you a service which was critical for your project, which I'm now tenuously tied to, do I now need Unity Pro?

That's an extreme example obviously, but the loose wording Unity uses even when answering questions on this topic leaves too much for interpretation.

A more realistic example:
* I provide you with a standalone character movement script, I wrote it to your specs, but I'm not actually privy to anything regarding your project outside of the provided specs for the requested script.

Well I have provided you a service, the product of which you are using in your project. Did I just work on the "same project" even though I have zero knowledge of what that project even is? I would argue I worked on a separate project, and do not need the same license tier as you. Unity's answer though leaves that up to interpretation of what the "same project" is though.

Another example:
* You post a question on the forum, and provide lots of code from your project. You go into extraordinary detail on what you need from this code, but you have a script bug you can't find the cause. I find the bug, rewrite the code, and post it onto the forum.

Do I now need your license tier for providing a service for this project of yours?

 

I'm just passing along their reply. I think it's enough info that most people will be able to make a decision for their specific case. If anyone has questions or wants to argue hypotheticals, contact support directly with your specific situation.