The entire team here at Cyan is honored that you folks love the stuff we create. We also love the stuff you create! We think it’s awesome that you want to make art, writings, music, and other things based on our Intellectual Property! At the same time, if we don’t protect our trademarks and copyrights for our Intellectual Property, we can lose them.

With this in mind, we try to have a policy that is as friendly as possible because we consider our fans our friends, too! We want to encourage fan-made creation and other transformative works that are created solely for personal use, and provide guidelines to help keep the boundaries clear between official and unofficial works based on our worlds. 

A couple important things to note:

  • While Cyan does on occasion work with outside creators on a commercial basis, those agreements are separate from policies contained in this document. Creators wanting to work with Cyan in a commercial capacity must enter a licensing agreement with Cyan prior to making their creation available.
  • Cyan does not have the ability to grant third-party use authorization for any of the music tracks for the games Myst or Riven. You will need to seek approval from Robyn Miller separately before making use of any of the music from these games.

Fan-Made Content Policy Stipulations

The following applies to all fan-made creations:

  1. You may create fan content based on Cyan, Inc. or Cyan Worlds (Cyan) Intellectual Property (IP) as long as you comply with this policy. Any fan art that violates this policy is prohibited.
  2. You may use the names of characters, plot points, and depictions of scenes so long as Cyan is given credit as outlined in item 5.
  3. Cyan may, in its sole discretion, revoke this permission to create Fan Content at any time and for any reason.
  4. Fan Content must be appropriate for the audience of Cyan and consistent with the spirit and tone of Cyan (as determined by Cyan). Fan Content must comply with applicable laws, may not violate the rights of others, and must not be obscene, sexually explicit, defamatory, offensive, objectionable, or harmful to others (as determined by Cyan). If you have a question or concern regarding the appropriateness, consistency, or compliance of a particular fan created work, please contact us at [email protected].
  5. You must prominently display the following disclaimer on or in connection with your Fan Content, including on any web page containing your Fan Content:
    • This product contains trademarks and/or copyrighted works of Cyan. All rights reserved by Cyan. This product is not official and is not endorsed by Cyan.
  6. You must promptly comply with any requests for changes, clarifications or modifications of your creation by representatives of Cyan in order to remain compliant with this policy.
  7. Fan Content may not have a commercial (i.e., monetary) objective. 
    • You may not sell any merchandise which uses Cyan’s IP. This includes, but is not limited to, posters, prints, stickers, t-shirts and other clothing, mugs, plushies, pins, jewelry, figures, phone accessories, replicas, without prior written agreement from Cyan.
    • Web videos and Livestreams (such as through YouTube, Twitch, or similar platforms) may be monetized with advertisements, so long as those videos otherwise meet the requirements of this Policy.
    • For more information about obtaining an official commercial licensing agreement, contact Cyan at [email protected] 
  8. You may not say nor imply that your Fan Content is endorsed or approved by Cyan.
  9. You may not use any Cyan IP in any manner that is derogatory to Cyan or that may damage the value, reputation, or goodwill of Cyan or its products or brands (as determined by Cyan).
  10. You may not use any of Cyan’s IP to market your Fan Content.
  11. You may not use crowdfunding to finance works based on Cyan’s IP.
  12. You may not taunt Happy Fun Ball. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M)

Please read this Policy carefully before publicly disseminating any Fan Content. Please note that we reserve the right to change or update this Policy at any time by posting the revised Policy on our website. We ask that any existing Fan Content that no longer complies with this Policy due to a change in the Policy be modified to be compliant with the Policy.

If you have any questions, please err on the side of caution and assume it is not allowed until you have verified otherwise… Feel free to reach out to [email protected] for clarification before doing anything.