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therriaultk · by **therriaultk** » Fri May 02, 2014 6:34 pm

Kickstarter does not have anything to do with assuring the reliability and feasibility of projects on their website, but they do make it clear that if a project is fully funded, the creator is legally required to deliver all products promised or provide backers with a refund. However, sometimes things do not go as planned, and backers need to be careful about which projects they decide to support.

In what is the first consumer protection lawsuit involving crowdfunding, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a suit against Ed Nash and his Nashville, Tenn.-based company, Altius Management.

Their product was a playing card game called Asylum. The campaign surpassed its goal by over $10,000 in October 2012, and the company was supposed to start delivering the products in December 2012. None of the items have been shipped, and it has been almost a year since Ed Nash has been in contact with his backers. Not only is this a crime and a shame for the over 800 backers who are understandably frustrated - but also for those projects who will miss out on funding because the public sees stories like these on the news and may become weary of being scammed.

What do you guys think? Should more be done to ensure the reliability of the people who request funding for projects on Kickstarter?

Source: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/attorney-general-asylum-playing-cards-crowdfunded-project/

sbriggman · by **sbriggman** » Tue May 06, 2014 3:12 pm

Was having a discussion about this on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/kickstarter/com ... ?context=3

One user said :
"Um, no. Not legally required at all. Not even a little bit. They didn't use the words "legally obligated" because it's not a legal obligation. Not fulfilling a reward violates the TOS, but doesn't break the law. Might be grounds for a private suit, or even a class-action suit if there are enough backers, but it's not something prosecutors need to be involved in."

I definitely think more should be done - the question is who should do it. If you say you're going to create a company or organization that certifies whether or not creators are legitimate, you might get sued if you clear a creator and they end up not being legitimate.

I'm sure that Kickstarter doesn't want to be involved either because that opens them up to lots of lawsuits from around the world, which could easily threaten their existence as a company because they are so popular.

At this time, I think the best way is for backers to take legal action should they choose to and for bloggers/journalists/forums to make people aware of scams and scammers.

Azariah · by **Azariah** » Sat Jul 19, 2014 6:36 am

I guess the Altius Management is even more reasonable because of the facts and figures it follows.Most of the times its about how something actually works for us and this is the way how its fine enough.
According to me we can do it all goodly and that is the way how it help us.

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