Woah, wait a minute? Someone contacts Kickstarter and alleges that a paying customer of theirs is using the Kickstarter platform to violate the law and Kickstarter's only response is to contact the customer directly? This has to be some kind of joke, right?
In the ISP space, that's pretty common. In fact, with things like the DMCA, that's codified into law.
Really, you don't want some private company acting like a judge here. We don't have the legal knowledge or interest.
Your choice here, essentially is "Shut down everyone who gets a complaint" or "try to be the judge" (e.g. only shut them down if the complaint isn't obviously bogus) or 'forward the complaint on and let them deal with it'
There are a lot of reasons why you, the customer, would want #3.
ISPs are data conduits and we don't expect them to police everything.
In fact, with things like the DMCA, that's codified into law.
Content processors like YouTube have already been shown to have an obligation to support take-down requests from IP holders.
In this case, Kickstarter got the equivalent of a polite take-down request from Arduino and they said, "nah".
While I see the common carrier strategy they're pursuing, I don't think that it makes sense in the long run. It will crumble like a house of cards when the first team of lawyers takes a whack at it for serious infringement.
Worse yet, by that time Kickstarter's reputation for protecting the interests of backers will likely be irrevocably damaged, thus destroying their business model anyway.
Throw in some competitors to their business model who add in some sense of protecting the interests of backers and Kickstarter will end up being the Myspace of crowd funding sites.
> Content processors like YouTube have already been shown to have an obligation to support take-down requests from IP holders.
An obligation in-so-far as the DMCA is enforced. YouTube might be doing additional things as a company, but they aren't required by any law I know of. Maybe it's an agreement with IP holders, but it's not a law.
> Kickstarter got the equivalent of a polite take-down request from Arduino and they said,
That isn't the same thing as a DMCA take-down request.
> It will crumble like a house of cards when the first team of lawyers takes a whack at it for serious infringement.
The DMCA protects them. Their is no indication they received a DMCA request.
I think Kickstarter has to be a judge a little bit. If they choose not to be a judge then they are choosing to get a letter with phrases like "knowingly profiting while causing incalculable losses to the value our world-wide brand"
Arduino has been very generous with what they have given away, I know if I had received the above letter I would have at least asked the other side for their story.
does kickstarter actually do #3, or are they just in a different shade of #2?
I believe I am not allowed to put up a kickstarter to manifacture a portable meth lab I imagine.
(Also, I wonder, could they have a "warning, this project legitimacy has been challenged, read here" message for stuff like the one in TFA?)
