I know that there are 2 webbased version of terra mystica. One vs other players and one vs ai
other players = http://terra.snellman.net/
vs ai = http://lodev.org/tmai/
So hopefully they are not so strict about sharing the work you have done

I can’t distribute the game since I don’t have permission from the publisher who has the copyright.

I’ve had really bad luck at getting permission to even give away copies of my board game conversions. Most publishers see it as a threat to physical sales or as a conflict with their iPad licensing agreement. But I don’t think I even asked for Terra Mystica. I think that the U.S. publisher is Z-Man games, so I’ll send them an email asking for a license to distribute. I’ll update this post when I hear back and I’ll email you direct if I do get permission.