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Kickstarter is not a casino. The TOS requires companies to deliver. Those that don't open themselves to lawsuits. My recommendation to anybody who does a kickstarter is to price it at the retail price or even more if you're talking about limited or first run sales.

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Not really. The original unrealistic TOS were amended a while back. Among the terms in the current TOS "they offer to return any remaining funds to backers who have not received their reward (in proportion to the amounts pledged), or else explain how those funds will be used to complete the project in some alternate form."

Yeah, but that's what Kickstarter decided to become at some point, they weren't always that way. I'm hoping that other crowdfunding platforms don't go this direction, and allow me to choose my risk without opening the creators up to lawsuits (which feels like the most un-Kickstarter thing ever).

Why shouldn't they be open to legal action?

I went to a special screening of Iron Sky. Some of the production of that was done in Australia. During the Q&A they were saying that due to Australian laws they can't do something like Kickstarter in Australia. If they took money to finance the film, the people giving the money would have been investors with rights. Basically a legal and logistical nightmare.

This doesn't sound unreasonable.

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