It's frequently immoral to tell people what they can do with their money. It's potentially destructive. But what is legal is whatever the people in power say it is. They once made slavery legal and resisting it illegal.
I'm in favor of certain restrictions where they are absolutely necessary to protect the fabric of society, such as a minimum wage and a cap on campaign contributions. I'm unconvinced of compelling need in this case.
>> One thing I've been trying to work out is if there is a difference between crowdfunding as we know and love it on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo vs "equity crowdfunding" which is what the rules apply to. <<
I believe there is ...
>> Whether equity crowdfunding is the legal term for crowdfunding or whether it means shares of a company, ie stock. <<
... because cyberfunded creativity comes with product rewards (i.e. a copy of a game) but not a return on investment in the form of cash back as the company grows. Equity crowdfunding is an investment model, where people hope to get money back eventually. At least that's how I've heard it described. It's a way to find investors, for projects the banks won't fund or people don't want to use banks.
Some regulation is probably necessary to make sure that business creators don't simply take the money and run. But the proposal has problems -- for instance, the $2000 cap makes it difficult or impossible for one or a few superfans to make a project happen. That's a problem because crowdfunding HAS people who watch for opportunities like that.
Re: Well...
It's frequently immoral to tell people what they can do with their money. It's potentially destructive. But what is legal is whatever the people in power say it is. They once made slavery legal and resisting it illegal.
I'm in favor of certain restrictions where they are absolutely necessary to protect the fabric of society, such as a minimum wage and a cap on campaign contributions. I'm unconvinced of compelling need in this case.
>> One thing I've been trying to work out is if there is a difference between crowdfunding as we know and love it on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo vs "equity crowdfunding" which is what the rules apply to. <<
I believe there is ...
>> Whether equity crowdfunding is the legal term for crowdfunding or whether it means shares of a company, ie stock. <<
... because cyberfunded creativity comes with product rewards (i.e. a copy of a game) but not a return on investment in the form of cash back as the company grows. Equity crowdfunding is an investment model, where people hope to get money back eventually. At least that's how I've heard it described. It's a way to find investors, for projects the banks won't fund or people don't want to use banks.
Some regulation is probably necessary to make sure that business creators don't simply take the money and run. But the proposal has problems -- for instance, the $2000 cap makes it difficult or impossible for one or a few superfans to make a project happen. That's a problem because crowdfunding HAS people who watch for opportunities like that.