The latest news, as known

Chogon (AKA Mark DeForest, Myst Community Manager) has taken Greydragon's duties since the Cavern's closing.

May 9, 2008
He explains who he is and other good information about user created content here.
http://www.mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15579&highlight=

May 20, 2008
Talks about the game engine here
http://www.mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15609&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=29

June 10, 2008
Gave this comment in between a complaining thread on Uru Obsession board and prompted us to remain still and not endanger the talks.
"Dickens, I understand your sentiment in getting Uru back online. But right now, your timing is not so good. We are getting closer to getting the rights issue resolved and I know you would hate to muddy the waters before that is accomplished and prevent Uru from coming back online in a bigger way than you are proposing.

So, to everyone, please don't panic yet... it's not over until the last bahro sings."


Thanks,
Chogon"


Current as of June 22, 2008.

What does Chogon mean what he says:

Quote :

But at the moment Cyan can't do anything different until the agreement with GameTap has changed or expires

?

I thought the agreement with GameTap had expired, and that's why Uru: Live was taken down. What? Is GameTap now claiming rights on Cyan's product and they won't let Cyan just walk off and post Uru: Live somewhere else? Cyan made this world and it should be Cyan that makes the call... right?

Or is there something else that I failed to see from all this?

There are different rights that were sold by Cyan. The exact breakdown, I'm not sure of. But I believe it's Gametap that they are working with for the rights.

But there's more to it than that. Because Turner also owns some rights. I believe that's where the two years come into play. My guess that there is some crossing of the rights between Gametap and Turner. Cyan is trying to negotiate a way to release those rights before the contract's specified time.

Really, I'm the wrong person to ask on this. I don't have all the details. If you want a fuller answer I really suggest posting the question to have them explained on mystonline's forum. In fact, I'm sure it's in there somewhere already.

Only thing I know for sure is there's a two year wait if Cyan cannot negotiate the terms to have the rights released back to them.

It's sad when you sell your rights to your creation and become so limited to what you can do with it. It's the scary business side of publishing.