A book about the MYST series

[Justintime9]

Hey guys, this is a post I made on the Cyan forums, but I figured I'd get your input on it too.

I've wanted to write a series of blog posts about the MYST series a long time. I think there's a lot of symbolism and depth that no one's really explored or defined clearly. Not to mention so much of it reflects actual history. (The D'ni Kings look suspiciously like the Kings of Israel in the Bible. "The Great King" = King David? etc.)

But then I got to thinking, there's just so much stuff to explore. There's the games individually, there's the collective whole of the series' storyline. There's a lot of angles it could be taken. So it dawned on me, what if I wrote a book about it? I'd just publish it on lulu.com. I know people have done that before in regard to URU stuff. (Or, at least once. If anyone recalls "The D'mala Memory Book" made by Tay.)

So a couple questions:
1. What are the legal issues in regard to this? Obviously Cyan owns all the rights of MYST. Not to mention Presto Studios and Ubisoft for Myst III and IV. And if it were published and I made money off it, there'd be at least a few legal hurtles to get through.
2. Does this even seem like a worthwhile idea? The idea is kind of vague at this point, but as I worked on it it'd take shape. I'd basically go through all the games and read all the books, and see what I come up with. Since no one's really done this before I think at least some in the MYST community would find it interesting.

Note: just to be clear, I certainly wouldn't be doing this for the money. It's just a fun project I'd enjoy.

[Tweek]

I recently contacted Cyan about publishing my Beneath entries into book form. My recommendation is to email Tony at Cyan and ask him.

[Deledrius]

That sounds like it could be an amazing read. I would love to see it; I agree that there is a lot of room for analysis of the series and exploring the literary and historical contexts.

As for the legal issues, in general a scholarly work that references the Myst franchise for the purpose of commentary and examination should be easily covered entirely by the doctrine of fair use. It wouldn't hurt to let Cyan know (who knows, maybe they'll even grant some interviews or information of their own), but even so you shouldn't have difficulty with it. Make sure that the things you reference are clearly marked. IANAL though, so this is simply my understanding of the general status of this kind of thing.

[Justintime9]

Awesome, sounds like it shouldn't be a problem then. I'm glad to hear you like the idea too. I wasn't sure how it would be received. And though I'm doing it just for the fun of it, it dawned on me, due to the dedication of MYST's fanbase, I might actually make some money off this.

So I'll E-mail tony about it. Hopefully he'll say what Deledrius said. And Tweek, that sounds like an awesome idea. I've always liked your Beneath posts so it'd be a good addition to my collection.