Washington Files First Consumer Protection Lawsuit Over Kickstarter Fraud 47
An anonymous reader writes "In 2012, a card game called Asylum was successfully funded on Kickstarter. Two months later, its expected delivery date came and passed without a product. In July 2013, the company behind the game stopped communicating with backers. Now, the Washington state Attorney General has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against the makers. This is the first time a project from a crowdfunding site has been the target of such a lawsuit. The AG said, 'Consumers need to be aware that crowdfunding is not without risk. This lawsuit sends a clear message to people seeking the public's money: Washington state will not tolerate crowdfunding theft. The Attorney General's Office will hold those accountable who don't play by the rules.' Here's the legal document (PDF)."
So.... (Score:4, Insightful)
The system is working the way it should?
Good.
Re:Which way is the wind blowing today? (Score:5, Insightful)
So is this a case of too much government involvement in "open source" things or is this a case of the government is a bit late and should have prevented this situation from happening in the first place?
In my opinion neither. The government has no specific interest in deciding how people choose to invest their money, provided those investments are not explicitly fraudulent. But they do have an obligation to police illegal fraud. Kickstarter projects can fail: that is the risk investors take as investors. But if the people running the project do not make a good-faith effort to produce what they have asserted they can produce for their investors, that's a crime. I would say going dark on your investors for almost a year strongly suggests no good faith effort is being made to complete the project.