Unity license and sanctions.

Probably everyone knows about the current situation in the world. I am a game developer on the Unity engine and I am worried that sanctions against Russia may affect my activities. Can I be sure that my license will not be revoked and I will continue to develop games on Unity as before? I'm from Russia.

 

You probably want to write to support.

In general: Unity usually follows whatever the current export-laws are in the US.

 

You cannot be be sure of that.

US could implement a law that would force Unity to terminate licenses for Russians. So far US hasn't done so, and there's not much reason to expect that to happen. But you can't be sure that it will never happen.

 

It is a pity that this affects those people who do not support the war in Ukraine. I'm personally against war. I believe that gamedev, as well as science, should be out of politics.

 

Given that situation changed, some details, in case anyone is interested.

As far as I can tell, Unity is not planning to revoke licenses for Russians, which is a good thing.

However, at the moment, Russian citizen will be unable to use VISA, Mastercard, Paypal to pay or receive money, which can cause problem if someone bought pro or is selling things on asset store. Bank transfer should be possible, but this is not certain, because previously this sort transactions were used by companies and people registered as individual enterpreneurs and required dealing with foreign currency control (that's a thing. An anti-laundering mechanism). In this scenario it would be a good idea to contact support to check if there are payment/payout routes still available or not.

 

It depends further, really. With Russia cut off from SWIFT, a lot of international transactions may see delay depending on how they're handled due to manual verification having to be used. Whether this applies to Unity's payouts is beyond me though.

 

That piece of information is not quite correct.
Swift is cut off for some (most? seven of them) banks but not for all of them.

There are at least two banks still functional. Mastercard/VISA is out for everybody, though, same goes for paypal, payoneer, etc.

 

Therefore, Unity Technologies needs to add other payment methods, the same cryptocurrency would solve the problem

 

also MIR, Union Pay, Apple Pay

 

In current situation something like this is unlikely to happen. Because if Unity were to implement different payment systems so Russians have easier time paying/receiving money, they'll gain negative publicity in their target market and probbaly slammed with some sort of action. Regarding crypto there's the whole thing about trying to use it in a legal way, which is its own small circus.

The reasonable idea woudl be to stay put, look into withdrawing funds through remaining unsanctioned banks, and wait for this stuff to pass.

Because, as with all things "This, too, shall pass"

 

Cryptocurrency is not a solution to this or any currency problem. The IRS has started requiring that we report it for tax purposes and the government is starting to introduce bills to track it and there is a bill being introduced that will include it in the sanctions against Russia.

If you want to continue using Unity then you have to be the one to break the law here. Sanctions have to be obeyed or it leads to tremendous legal ramifications. We're talking tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands per incident and up to thirty years in prison. We're not going to risk that for you.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-de...an-crypto-use-amid-ukraine-crisis-2022-03-17/
https://www.dowjones.com/professional/risk/glossary/sanctions/ofac-sanctions-penalties/

 

Cryptocurrency also isn't a solution because you still need to be able to cash it out to actually use it, and that's a process that is time consuming and annoying at the best of times and only made worse after the November crash.

 

Well, you CAN cash it out, but it can draw attention of IRS or its local equivalent.

 

You don't even have to cash it out to draw attention now that the crypto exchanges that want to be legit long term businesses have started reporting all transactions to the IRS.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...nft-sale-or-mining-income-taxable-11643916154

Multiple proposals are working their way through the United States government that will increase regulations on virtual currencies including requiring all crypto exchanges and custodians to report all transactions for accounts that deal with more than $600 per year, increasing the tax rates, etc.

All of that and it will be retroactive applying to all transactions starting after April 28th 2020 so don't think you can just fly under the radar now hoping to get a transaction in before it passes.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/14/irs-new-rules-on-bitcoin-ethereum-dogecoin-trading.html

 

Apologies, I wasn't clear there.

I was mainly talking about Russian equivalent of IRS there, and not US IRS.

 

Union Pay is a Chinese payment system. But in the future, it is planned to coloborate with the Russian payment system and it will be possible to use Union Pay for Russians. But even then, Union will remain the Chinese payment system, right? I don't think Unity can be punished for using this payment system.

 

Crypto exchanges do not have to be used. Cryptocurrency can be stored in your wallet on your computer

 

Where it has no value.

The United States has warned Chinese firms not to help Russia bypass sanctions, and the government is very much capable of tracking it too.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/04/us-...russia-avoid-potential-ukraine-sanctions.html

 

Doesn't work this way.

Unity is an USA company, if USA says no payments for Russians, Unity obeys. Regardless of payment system.
Unity also has no obligation to implement Union Pay (they likely won't do it, because it is Chinese, and Unity is US-based), or MIR (because it is Russian), and even if ApplePay implemented, then Apple is another US company, meaning if US says no payments for Russians, Apple obeys, and it will be impossible to pay across the borders even if ApplePAY works in Russia.

Similar situation already existed with Paypal where it was impossible to transfer money from a company payapl account to an individual in Russia. Due to regulations.

You do not understand the issue.

Your cold wallet has value of a piece of paper. TO make it useful, you'll need to cash it out. When you start cashing it out, your bank and tax services in your country can find the situation incredibly interesting, because you're creating money from nowhere. And when money appears from nothing, default assumption will be that it is of criminal origin. That can result in account freeze, loss of money, a lawsuit or maybe even criminal charges. Having anonymous alternative currency system is against interests of most governments, meaning they'll crack down on anything that would allow you to bypass their sanctions, and put laws on it. That is already illustrated by @Ryiah who mentioned that individuals in US have to report their crypto assets to tax agency.

Right now you're pretty much panicking and grasping at straws, hoping that there's magical solution of sorts. No offense intended. No such solution exists. The situation at the moment is beyond your control so the best idea is to stay put till it reaches a conclusion. As I said "this, too, shall pass".

 

You know a situation is serious when the company (Apple) that fought the FBI to prevent them from decrypting a phone is among the first to pull out of Russia and even levies sanctions of their own making.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/03/01/apple-russia-sanctions-ukraine/6983755001/

 

Yeah, your words are true. But in this case, I (and other users) will have to open an account and card in a bank of another state. In fact, this is possible, for example, in Kazakhstan. Even for non-residents.

 

They actually returned a day later and are now operating normally. At exorbitant prices, though.
https://www.imore.com/apple-premium-reseller-reopens-russia-ahead-march-apple-event

Someone already made an NSFW jokes about how some of those companies keep going back and forth instead of pulling out.

My point is that this company is ultimately on US soil which means US has the power to end it.

 

I doubt Unity will be trying to find ways around these sanctions, regardless of whether it's technically possible. I don't think it's in Unity's (or the worlds) best interest for Unity to do so.

I'm sorry you're affected by this, but your personal stance against the war doesn't change the validity of the sanctions.

 

I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about how there are fundamental issues with exchanges having cashflow issues in the first place, especially ones that are local and specific to certain countries. Smaller amounts are difficult to cash out because there are usually minimum amounts that can be processed due to transaction fees. In the case of bitcoin, right now I think it's about $1.75 but can bump up to as much as $5, while gas prices for ethereum are between $20 and $30 depending on who you're dealing with.

So because of this, most exchanges require you cash out at least $100 USD or equivalent, which can be a problem for a lot of people because often they're not dealing with that much money in revenue in the first place.

But the problem is that a lot of exchanges can't exactly handle large volumes of transactions unless they're also getting more money than that coming in in terms of actual real-life money that people use. This is increasingly rare because of the November crash I brought up. In the case of places like Russia and Ukraine, exchanges are dealing with the local currency's values having plummeted, on top of limited cash flow due to the war and sanctions. This is because people have to buy into crypto to add to those coffers in the first place.

Crypto is unable to function unless everyone is exclusively using it and nobody really exclusively uses it because the volatility inherent to these markets makes it pretty useless as a currency. A dollar shouldn't really do this:




When it does, sane investors tend to avoid it like the plague because it's just too risky.

 

If you're thinking that it's only in this case you're not thinking broadly enough. If software sanctions go through they won't just stop at Unity. All of the major software stores are based outside of Russia.

 

Normally $100 is the amount where dealing with hassle of transaction across borders becomes worth the trouble. And transaction fees of $20..30 are reminiscent of Wire Transfer fees used in the past, so it is not like this is new

Basically, the point of crypto exchange in this scenario is that you can move SOME money across compared to being unable to move any of it. It is, like, I don't know, using a postal pigeon to smuggle a gold nugget over a castle wall, then selling it on black market to get cash you can use in your area. And not using it as a wallet. So volatility is not a factor. The factor is getting "some" of your money vs getting "none".

Obviously everybody and their mother will try to rip you off in the process. So you can easily lose half of the sum in the transaction. Or even more.

 

In fact, Unity has the point of circumventing sanctions and trading with Russia and not only. Everything is very simple - Russia is a relatively large market for products and software.

 

In this case, a change of region and an American IP address can help. Example: Steam (Valve), PlayStation Store.

 

If you can find someone that will provide you with one.

 

Plenty of VPN services operate out of places that don't adhere to international sanctions.

 

Providing more arguments will not increase chances of you wishes coming true.
I advise to stay put.

Half the world is not a part of nato block, so a VPN is not going to be a problem.

 

In general, I am still optimistic. Computers and other electronics can be bought in China, software can be purchased using methods of circumventing restrictions, the main thing is that the Internet is not turned off in Russia. The rest is resolvable.

 

I am going to leave this open (for now), as it may be valuable for updates and current information.
HOWEVER: 1) stay on topic. 2) DO NOT discuss or speculate ways around sanctions or local laws. As noted above the situation is fluid. Those topics maybe be illegal in certain areas at this point, and as per the rules, you may NOT use this forum for anything illegal.

edit: whoops!

 

You may want to rephrase that last statement.

 

He shouldn't. I'm gonna go jaywalk while committing tax fraud and removing a band-aid in public.

 

Yeah, this is happening now =(

Looks like lots of payouts to ru were "DISAPPROVED" even to the non-sanctioned banks.

Not sure if it's the same for everyone from ru, but I suspect so extrapolating from what I know.
I've got a reply from the Customer Support literally stating they don't know why exactly payment wasn't get through and it was cancelled with "DISAPPROVED" error despite I'm using bank which is not under any direct sanctions. Also, every ru publisher I've talked to, do observe same symptoms: payout transaction disappeared, no self-bill email.

That's really unfortunate knowing Customer Support told payments are prohibited to the specified sanctioned banks leaving some hope till the last day.

 

Is there really no any way to buy assets from Assets Store while being in Russia?

 

You'll need to contact unity support. Most likely there isn't a way.

Technically a russian can still send payments over the border via swift and one of the banks that are not under sanctions, but that doesn't mean unity will accept the payment, plus I do not think that "wire transfer via swift" was a payment option.

There's also this article:
https://support.unity.com/hc/en-us/...-do-I-purchase-a-voucher-for-the-Asset-Store-

which talks about vouchers, so you could investigate that.

Also see earlier request of zombiegorilla:

 

Last warning, this thread will stay open to allow for updated information, but YOU MAY NOT DISCUSS WORK AROUNDS OR WAYS AROUND SANCTIONS.

I realize this is frustrating. But the situation is unique and complex. Unity does not allow discussions of illegal activity.

 

Almost a year has passed since this whole circus is going on, is there really still no information about whether it is possible to legally withdraw money to citizens of Russia?

Is it really time to go to some factory to earn money for a living there? Forget your dream job/productive collaboration with unity3d until better times?

I don't understand, I really want to continue to develop in the direction of the asset store, but all this movement reduces my enthusiasm to a minimum. In Russian marketplaces, my work is tritely unnecessary compared to the world that exists in unity.

It pains me to realize what kind of ass we are in, at one time it was this ass that prompted me to join the inspiring community of unity3d. But I don't feel that unity anymore when I started trading rocks/bushes in the unity3d store. How sad I am...

 

Unity has no choice in the matter when it comes to sanctions. Sanctions are required to be followed or the person breaking them will be prosecuted including potentially being sanctioned themselves. If you contact support they should be able to tell you what options you have available.

 

Thank you for your reply, it gives me hope that it's not all in vain and everything will get better

 

In general, Russian residents are able to receive SWIFT transactions in several unsanctioned banks. However, I do not know if unity is willing to send the money to Russia. Unity does have a "wire transfer" option which should be SWIFT, but the question is whether they'd send money your way. Additionally, monetary transfers are moving VERY slowly, as in we're talking about MONTHS of delays in case of particularly eager banks which want to perform their "stringiest checks" to ensure that the recipient of $100 payment is not actually an secret russian oligarch controlling the world from the shadows.

In the first place, asset store was a tiny market, so putting all your eggs in that basket was not the best idea, though it is understandable why you'd want to do so.

In the current situation going to the factory "to build giant bipedal walking weapon platforms for the glory of motherland" is indeed an option, as you'll have a fairly stable salary and no uncertainties.

Additionally you have an option of directly working with verified/trusted clients and skip the marketplaces, though if you haven't built any connections, this is gonna be difficult, as you'd sure as hell will have difficulty building those connections now.

Another option is to seek office jobs where you do what you want in Russia. Or you can start learning Mandarin.

I think there's a lesson to be learned here. If you base your business on a service or technology that's outside of your country's jurisdiction, that service can end you due to political reasons. Meaning something that you rely upon but do not own may be your killswitch.

On other hand, Like @Ryiah said, it is not like Unity would have a choice. If they go against the sanctions the government will end them, as the company is on US territory, controlled by US laws, and in a scenario where Unity goes against government, the government is gonna win.