How Does Kickstarter Work?

Do you have a project in mind? Have an invention you want to make real? An album you want to release? A play you want to put on? How do you plan to pay for it? There are, of course, options. You can take out loans, find an investor, or you can crowd-fund it. What's that you say? Crowd funding is a method for raising money little-by-little by lots of people, usually over the internet. The most well known way of crowd funding projects nowadays is through a website called Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is a website focused on helping people with creative projects raise money. Kickstarter focuses on the following themes: Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater. They define a project as having  "a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it." This means it does not include things like charity or begging (aka "fund my life").

Kickstarter is best known for its unique way of fundraising. It uses an "all or nothing"method. The project owners set a goal (say, $500,000) and the supporters are only charged their pledged amount if the goal is hit. That means that if you pledge $25, but the project only raises $498,735, you do not loose your $25. The second thing Kickstarter is best known for is the multiple levels of pledging often set up by the project owners. It's not uncommon for pledge amounts to range between $1 and several hundred. Depending on the amount you pledge, you will receive gifts between a simple thank you to several copies of whatever you are funding.

Practical Tip of the Day:
If you do fund a Kickstarter project, be patient! People starting the campaigns are creative people, not operations experts. With projects that far exceed the original goal especially, it can sometimes take longer than anticipated to rework the plans for how to produce so many items, how to ship them, work out legalities, taxes, etc. Remember, backing a Kickstarter project is not like buying an item on Amazon. You're backing an entrepreneur to help them make their dream. These things can take time.

What are Internet Pirates?

Where do pirates like to shop the most? Taaaarrrrget! Okay, I know that's a bad joke (and probably doesn't make much sense outside the US and western Europe), but today we're looking at what, exactly are Internet pirates. They get discussed in the media, laws made against them, and are blamed by some to be the cause of all of the music industry's problems. You may be an internet pirate and not even know it!

"Internet pirate" is a term for someone who steals items from the internet instead of buying them through legitimate channels. This can be music, movies, software, or anything else digital. The term "internet pirate" became popular when Napster was at its peak and people were downloading music left and right. Have you ever downloaded a song from a program like Napster, Limewire, or Bearshare? These are all programs that are designed to allow people to share large files between each other, but people have taken over to share large copyrighted files between them and millions of strangers.

I've noticed an uptick in parents unknowingly pirating songs because their children download a program like Limewire on the computer and tell them that it's a place they can get music, TV shows and movies for free. They don't tell them that it's illegal, that they can be fined thousands of dollars, that it's a good way to get computer viruses, and/or have their internet provider refuse them further service. How can you know if you've been accidentally stealing your content? Did you pay for it? Did the maker of content explicitly say they're giving it away for free? If the answer is "no" to those questions, you've been pirating content!

Practical Tip of the Day:

As previously stated, pirating content is a good way to get viruses, malware, corrupted files and content you do not want (like porn instead of a TV show) downloaded onto your computer. Because of these as well as the legal and ethical reasons, I strongly discourage pirating. Where should you go to get these things then? iTunes, Amazon and Google Play are the three biggest content providers on the Internet. And yes, you have to pay.

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