

Kickstarter of Doom: Hoax Site Funds Torture Bus, Death Drones - jbegley
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/kickstarter-of-doom/

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AJ007
Inspired by China's mobile execution buses?

[http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-
van_x.ht...](http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-14-death-van_x.htm)

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stcredzero
Someone should do a Kickstarter clone site around the "Rule 34" meme.

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moistgorilla
That's technically art. Why would we need a kickstarter clone for it? :)

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zupreme
This was a semi-humorous hoax, but Kickstarter has shown a whole generation
that crowdsourcing can make serious money for both the requester (the person
seeking funds) and for the facilitator (e.g. Kickstarter).

It's only a matter of time until the BlackHat crowd catches on to this and
real fraud begins.

If that happens then, almost as certainly, legislation will follow which will
cripple the crowdfunding economy, or will drive it underground.

To potential Kickstarters: Get it while you can. The party won't last forever.

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slowpoke
_> The party won't last forever._

On the contrary, the party will get even bigger, It's a business model for
creators that demonstrably _works_ , and I think crowd-funding in general will
only get more widespread in the future.

That isn't to say that the content industries won't try to attack it on
grounds of the very fear-mongering arguments you just presented, but as with
their fight against piracy, it's ultimately futile, and they will eventually
adapt - or die.

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untog
What zupreme was suggesting (and that I agree with) is that legislation will,
eventually, change the process. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. But wait until
someone raises a fake Kickstarter for the victims of sexual abuse, or some
other political hot-topic. Maybe someone will get funded to do something
wildly dangerous and will get killed. Legislation will be crafted, badly, and
people will be limited by it.

Just like most other things, I suppose.

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zupreme
Thanks Untog. You got the gist of what I was saying correct. I'm not referring
to what will happen today, or even this year. But the reality is that
governments do not have a good track record of allowing large sums of money to
change hands without wanting to exercise control over the process.

It is only a matter of time until a well-publicized fraud is capitalized by
one or more politicians to introduce legislation limiting or outright banning
such transactions.

Just wait. In a year, or five, when it happens I'll do a blog post linking
back to this discussion as a reminder...

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slowpoke
It's not that I didn't get what you are saying, it's that I disagree with you
that the outcome is set in stone.

It's a given that governments, backed by eternally backwards industries, will
try to attack innovative new technologies or business models like Kickstarter
that could threaten those industries. And they will use ridiculous edge cases
or contrived, hypothetical threats to argue against them, and maybe achieve
temporary victories in the form of stupid laws.

And as I said, it will be futile. Innovation, in the end, will win. Progress
will eradicate those opposed to it, and reward the ones who embrace it. Just
like free sharing of information, art and culture will eventually be accepted
as one of the greatest technological advancements in human history, and we'll
deeply regret the decades wasted fighting against it.

