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I got the Personal version of Unity 5.5 to play around with it1. Let's say I own the rights on all the assets I use in my project, or they are licensed in a way that allows me to use, modify and republish them. That includes all the scripts, models, images, sounds and whatnot. But what about the fact that it's built with a commercial game engine?

Do the Unity terms allow me to host my project's source folder (including the assets) on github? Do I need to include a certain license for that?

Note that I don't care about releasing the game, I'm just talking about sources of stuff I am making to learn the technology.

1) no pun intended

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    \$\begingroup\$ Not an expert, but AFAIK there is nothing in the license that says anything about what you do with your game - the code you write is only on top of the engine, you aren't publishing any of the engine source code (which you don't have access to anyway) \$\endgroup\$
    – UnholySheep
    Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 15:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ The overview page for Unity Personal says: "Yes, you fully own the content you create with a Unity subscription, also if you stop subscribing to Unity." - so that would indicate that what you do with it is up to you. (Of course you need to pay attention to any other licensing agreements of assets and code you may have gotten from 3rd parties) \$\endgroup\$
    – UnholySheep
    Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 15:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ The terms of service (Section 4. Intellectual Property Rights) confirm that as well, as far as I can tell \$\endgroup\$
    – UnholySheep
    Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 15:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @gnemlock because that part of the doc is about using version control. That's not what I'm asking about. Making all my code that uses something commercial as its base (even if there is a unpaid licence) publicly available is something entirely different. That's also why I I used the license in my question, which unfortunately has not been answered. Without setting a licence explicitly, github assumes that I keep the rights on all the content. Even if it's visible, you're not allowed to use it. While that seems right, it might be possible to open source it, but that is a different question. \$\endgroup\$
    – simbabque
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 23:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @gnemlock please post an answer with a link and a quote of the part of the docs that say that. I had not come across that part of the documentation before and my research has not turned it up. If it's a better fit it will become the accepted answer. Thank you :-) \$\endgroup\$
    – simbabque
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 23:45

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Absolutely.

When you create a game with Unity you don't transfer any rights to any of your copyrighted material (or others' material that you are licensed to use) to Unity, nor do you give up any of those rights. So you are still free to do whatever you want with all of that.

As long as you don't store anything of Unity's (or anyone else's) that you are not licensed to use and redistribute, you'll be fine. For example if you were to have somehow obtained a valid source license to Unity's internals, that license would likely prohibit you from redistributing that source to the public.

But anything that's yours or that you have a license for, you're fine.

This is documented, as noted by @UnholySheep in the comments, in both the overview page and the TOS.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Would you mind including the references that UnholySheep found and commented above so the answer is complete and I can accept it please? \$\endgroup\$
    – simbabque
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 9:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @simbabque Sure, done. \$\endgroup\$
    – user1430
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 17:35

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