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Unity Silently Deletes GitHub Repo that Tracks Terms of Service Changes and Updated Its License
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this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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So I have Tabletop Simulator and Planet Crafter, the first of which is way more important to me as I use it to run my weekly D&D game. With hundreds of custom assets, and hours upon hours of scripting to make it work how I want. Since I've already purchased these games and have them installed, is it fair to keep using them?
I think it's totally fair. I don't know if this is the right take here but I think we as gamers have limited power in this situation as we're not really Unity's customers. It's the developers who have the power to move away from or limit their use of Unity and pressure them to change this decision especially as good alternatives exist already in the market. I know this doesn't help for existing games but hopefully they can at least get Unity not to make these fees retroactive, seems legally questionable to me as a layman at least.
Maybe one easy thing us gamers can do is to block unity domains at the network level. I'm not sure how they track installs but I'm guessing it must include some kind of phone home.
I've yet to see a coherent explanation for how Unity could even legally do that. As far as I know their previous Terms of Service did not include any mention of "also we can tack on additional fees whenever we want even for products that have already been developed" or "by agreeing to this version of the Terms of Service you permanently agree to any future versions of the Terms of Service", and even if it did I highly doubt that would be enforceable. They're trying to retroactively apply a fee structure that wasn't agreed to.
It's also telling that (according to Ars Technica) they specifically claim that this new fee structure isn't "royalties" and thus not subject to any protections afforded to royalty agreements. Methinks the lady doth protest too much and all that.
Unity licenses are sold as a subscription. When the subscription runs out, you either have to renew it and accept the new terms, or lose the license and stop distributing your game.
Okay, so even assuming that's the case, "stopping distribution" is different than "we're gonna charge you for installs of copies you've already sold". Still not seeing how that's legal.
Naturally they only get to charge for already-sold copies if you accept the new terms that include the charges. As for how it's legal to include those charges in the new terms to begin with, I guess you'd have to ask a contract lawyer. Presumably Unity's own lawyers are convinced they can get away with it, or they wouldn't have done it.