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Re:When A Kickstarter Campaign Fails, Does Anyone Get Their ... by mistercow on Monday September 03, 2012 @10:54PM (#4472846)
>There are other complexities that prevent this however, for instance SEC regs would certainly get in the way (only qualified investors, proper risk disclosure, etc etc).

Not to mention, as I understand it, there are some pretty strict rules about how you a company is allowed to solicit investments, and the Kickstarter format would be in violation of approximately all of them.

Re:When A Kickstarter Campaign Fails, Does Anyone Get Their ... by _red on Monday September 03, 2012 @11:36PM (#4472951)
Yep, its a minefield (of course like most things, these regs exist to protect special interest).

I'm sure there is some bright attorney who could figure a way around it (ie. its an unsecured loan, that contains a very permissible default clause, which is potentially convertible to an equity share upon event a, b, c happening). Or more simply, just host the site in Hong Kong or somewhere and escape US jurisdiction.

I know that none of this will never happen, just talking out loud....honestly, the first time I heard about Kickstarter, I thought this was the idea and I was excited. Then I discovered it was "act like a angel investor, fund my idea, and if 1000 things go right you will get a free tshirt". Meh.

Re:When A Kickstarter Campaign Fails, Does Anyone Get Their ... by taw9 on Monday September 03, 2012 @11:47PM (#4472983)
Given the Jobs act, I'm wondering how this will all get sorted out w.r.t. blue sky laws, etc... gonna be messy and full of fraud at some point.