We have all read and written fan stories aka fanfics without permission from LEGO group. Could Greg Farhstey just write a bionicle book and call it fanfiction like the rest of us? and release it online?
If lego is against the idea that their emplyee releases fiction using their copyrighted characers, Greg could write the book and switch the names of the characters and places. Lego does not own rights to elemental robots that roam jungles.
If Gregs wants payment for his work them we could launch a kickstarter for his " last adventure or lost robots" book and read it. Since it is greg’s own book about “totally original” robots, he owns the rights to it. Not lego.
From legality perspective, Greg could, if he would not claim that he invented it all himself and would not get paid for/sell it. But it won’t be official canon for Lego itself. I doubt that BS01 would post something like that either, becasuse they are pretty strict (case with 3D-printed masks on the contests etc.). It’s canonicity within community really depends on each person’s opinion about it.
Aside from that, I highly doubt Greg will write something like that. I’ve readen in Greg Archives that he does not want to write a new book because “Lego does not ask him to” (Several posts from the Archives).
If we make a Kickstarter project, it for sure would be illgal to name it Bionicle and I highly, very highly, doubt Greg would risk his career to release “Bionio: The Search for Awesome Entities” or something like that. It would probably look rather awkward too.
Well Greg is Gred so as canon goes it is as good as we will ever get. And yes everyone would make their own opnion since it is fanfic, which is the point.
I do not understand this argument. Yes the fanfic would not be official lego property, but the artwork winners of Helryx and Artakha are on BS01. And their inspiration models are linked on trivia section. How are they more canon?
But I do not care if the book would be on BS01 or not. I want to read it.
There is a difference between can’t and wan’t. He has implied he would want to do it. He can’t do it since LEGO owns the copyright.
And LEGo doesn’t want to since it would cost them money to check through lego official team if there are any material in the book that harmns the LEGO brand in any way.
Yes, money seems to be the most common reason why fan fiction is allowed to exist at all. If they make money then copyright holder takes them down.
But authors, even those who have a daily job, are allowed to do books and other works.
I can take little akward reading experience if I can read last bionicle book.
But if Greg’s job really would be threathened by this then I give this idea up. Job is more important than a fanfic.
What I meant is that BS01 is sometimes unpredictable, and there is that Lego Ambassador thing. But you are right, not a big deal.
Well, you can. But it is like buying bootleg sets - people can build and play with them, but that would not be such a great experience.
I believe it would, because Lego is not stupid (I hope) and probably will notice that their employee wrote a story with some, em, similarities with their Bionicle story and probably they won’t like it.
Also, just a tiny side thing: if you haven’t already and you want to read a Bionicle Continuation in very-close-to-Greg style of writing, I highly recommend this.
He’s said no before. He still determines what is canon, so any content he makes, such as a fanfic, would become canon, therefore negating the definition of a fanfiction. That said, I saw this a while ago, so it may not be pertinent still.
One thing that’s being missed here is that Greg’s canon ‘authority’ is contingent on and limited by his employment as a writer with Lego. Lego has essentially granted him permission to, as he once put it, ‘play in their sandbox’.
That means he has discretion to do what he likes, like these contests, only as long as Lego have no objections. He can write further story material if he wishes, but if it isn’t sanctioned by Lego, it isn’t canon.
Of course the concept of ‘canon’ is socially constructed, but those are the mechanics as far as Lego, Greg, and community leaders are concerned, so that’s what we’re working with.
(This is also why we’re so lucky that Greg does actually care, and that he has remained employed by Lego)
Now I can’t stop laughing at the thought that Greg is cursed with the “Canon Touch,” where, even if it’s against his will, anything and everything he writes suddenly and irreversibly becomes Bionicle canon.
…
In regards to the question, people have asked something like this before. If he were to sell a Bionicle book, it’d be a hard no.
But there isn’t any reason why Greg couldn’t hypothetically resume writing the story serials, if that was his wish. LEGO didn’t have a problem with it in the first place, and the only reason he stopped was because other things became more important for his work.
So could he write a new story serial and release that? My assumption is that, so long as LEGO approves, it’d be doable. But he probably couldn’t do it out of the blue.
I’m surprised no one has pointed out Tommy Andreason (probably misspelled that) with Way of the Departed, aka official Ninjago fanfiction by one of the Ninjago writers, the closest thing to a Greg of Ninjago. So yes, Greg could probably* do it, the question is if he would want to.
*I say probably, tommy has stated he could declare WotD canon, and Ninjago is ongoing, so it might be different
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking him, but he is working professionally in his field.
I’m sure he’s busy on a regular basis and has many things other than Bionicle on his mind. Not to mention, he doesn’t really get paid to write for Bionicle.
If Greg were to write more for Bionicle it’d be a passion project, and I don’t think there’s anything fans can do that can spark that kind of passion. It’s a personal thing.
This is all assuming Greg actually wants to take the time to write more Bionicle. I think I saw somewhere that he wants a different sci-fi writer to finish the G1 story.
