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[MrWiggles]

The biggest problem with Kickstarter is that you don't have to (though you can) put in any terms stating that you legally owe the donor anything, AFAIK. Which means anything could be a huge-ass scam, where the "developers" could run off to their Swiss account...

I'm not really sure if there could be such language when you put up a project though.

Sometimes shit happens, and you cannot deliver.

Lets take the HD movie glasses. Lets say the chinese factory whom they were going to manufacture with is shutdown, after they had paid them (this is just for the sake of argument). There goes the production money.

Or lets say, their RD lab space suffers a fire? Now they might have their schematics still, but they've lost valuable time and money setting up the RD lab. Might be to expensive get it going again.
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I realize, that you want the language to prevent scammers, but, and maybe this naive of me, I think cases my illustrative examples are going to be more common then scammers.

[Servant Corps]

I realize, that you want the language to prevent scammers, but, and maybe this naive of me, I think cases my illustrative examples are going to be more common then scammers.

It might. But you can never be certain whether a project genuinely failed or whether it is a scam, and the destruction of that trust could be damaging. And keep in mind, it's their money. Failures can be accepted if your money wasn't on the line and you didn't sacrifice greatly for it.

Further, there's a third reason for failure that you didn't account for: incompetence. Since anyone can do a Kickstarter, there's no quality control, and a person may just not be very good at fulfilling his promises. It's not intentionally deceptive, which is why it doesn't count as a scam for me.
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Speaking of scams, I took a look back at the ZionEyez and found these two comments:

@David, I believe that it was Amazon that called it a "donation", which in itself probably warrants some investigation. However, the main reason we can't get help from Amazon or our credit card companies is that they consider the purchase to have occurred on July 31, 2011, and they all have limits for how long you can wait to make a claim.
I'm not really sure that the "24-30 weeks from now" constitutes a guarantee, but a judge would be more likely to be swayed by that after they didn't make their Winter 2011 date.

That's exactly the problem I ran into with my bank -- they stated that since too much time had passed, I was unable to contest the charges. Originally the restriction was put into place to protect the vendors for frivolous charge-backs. In this case, that was exploited by the vendors -- as they did not even have the original ship-date until after we could no longer contest with the banks. Quite the scam. I suggest that everyone file with the Better Business Bureau. While Zion Eyez (or Lies, or whatever they want to be called these days) is not a member, it is still a public registry of the complaints against this company.
https://alaskaoregonwesternwashington.app.bbb.org
ZionEyez's address is:
ZionEyez
10015 Lakecity Way NE #350
Seattle, WA 98125

There is still no guarantee that ZionEyez is a scam, but if it is, then it's illustrative for how one could pull this scam off in the future. Keep the deadline so far away that there will be no more refunds.

[Wayward Device]

Well, for a real scam (as opposed to businesses that are merely so incompetent that it's like a scam) I wouldn't bother with any that, just make sure that my getaway plan was solid. Hmmm, "I am definitely Joss Whedon and I need 1.2 million to make a new series of firefly" followed by *flees to Caribbean island* is getting more and more tempting in these harsh economic times...

[zombie urist]

I wonder if you ask for a relatively small amount would it be possible to fool enough people to fund the project before people realize its a scam?

[penguinofhonor]

"Yeah, so I just need $50 to finish this computer game."

[Wayward Device]

Ok, just browsing the TOS I can't find anything banning the creation of a mercenary for for the purpose of annexing Vatican City. They've only got 500 Swiss Guards and a ton of lootz. I reckon we could put together a decent expeditionary force for less than ten mil. We just need a good quality video about why we care so much about this project.   

[alway]

As I have previously stated, they owe you nothing. It is a donation, not a preorder, not a purchase order, a donation. Anyone who donates to Kickstarter and expects to get something in return is doing it wrong. You are donating to help get a project off the ground, not to get your share of the project's pie.

[SealyStar]

Ok, just browsing the TOS I can't find anything banning the creation of a mercenary for for the purpose of annexing Vatican City. They've only got 500 Swiss Guards and a ton of lootz. I reckon we could put together a decent expeditionary force for less than ten mil. We just need a good quality video about why we care so much about this project.   

I hope there are no Catholics here who can't take a joke, but... I think this is a good idea. Explain that we're not anti-religious or anti-Catholic, just that we want the loot, and that the Vatican isn't protecting it well, so it's practically being offered to us. We'll give donators swag like "I helped sack the Vatican" t-shirts, shares of the loot ($10000 gets you an original-copy medieval manuscript!), autographed chalices, and framed pictures of the mercenaries in action, and the top three donators will be appointed as cardinals.

[alway]

Ok, just browsing the TOS I can't find anything banning the creation of a mercenary for for the purpose of annexing Vatican City. They've only got 500 Swiss Guards and a ton of lootz. I reckon we could put together a decent expeditionary force for less than ten mil. We just need a good quality video about why we care so much about this project.   

I hope there are no Catholics here who can't take a joke, but... I think this is a good idea. Explain that we're not anti-religious or anti-Catholic, just that we want the loot, and that the Vatican isn't protecting it well, so it's practically being offered to us. We'll give donators swag like "I helped sack the Vatican" t-shirts, shares of the loot ($10000 gets you an original-copy medieval manuscript!), autographed chalices, and framed pictures of the mercenaries in action, and the top three donators will be appointed as cardinals.

This is the best plan ever.

[nenjin]

As I have previously stated, they owe you nothing. It is a donation, not a preorder, not a purchase order, a donation. Anyone who donates to Kickstarter and expects to get something in return is doing it wrong. You are donating to help get a project off the ground, not to get your share of the project's pie.

Eh, when the project is funded, you should expect to get a product. Quality of said product will vary, but you're getting one, otherwise the entire rewards concept wouldn't work.

Kickstarter isn't the make-a-wish foundation, and it stopped being that way when professionals started raking in serious money. When you're offering pre-orders for a game on funding, that is a business arrangement. The only practical difference is that the ToS prevents people from suing for false advertising or anything else, under the term "donation." Remember other creative uses of the ToS agreements, like the ones that turned video games from products you own into products you've been licensed to use?

Imagine if the American Way or some other charity was like "give us money. But it's not guaranteed to turn into anything you'd want!"

In an ideal world, yes, Kickstarter would be just like the Make-a-Wish foundation for developers and entrepreneurs. But in practice, it's re-branding capital ventures as charity to avoid all the constraints AND protections that are normally in place.

On the storming of the Vatican, it would be really amusing to see people rush in with swords and such, and straight into the Swiss Guard armed with the latest military hardware.   

[Wayward Device]

I call a giant throne and a pope hat! And of course it wouldn't be about the religion, it's loot all round. If we raise more than our funding goal, we'll make sure our general smokes a pipe/cigar on all public occasions. 1 million more and he'll wield a claymore! 3 million and he duel wields claymores!

[Servant Corps]

"For $10,000, we'd ship the Pope over to you to live in your hometown. Just think, you could be in charge of the Second Avignon!"

[SealyStar]

On the storming of the Vatican, it would be really amusing to see people rush in with swords and such, and straight into the Swiss Guard armed with the latest military hardware.   

No, no, no. The Swiss Guard's "new military hardware" consists of MP5s and SIG SG 550s. Our mercenaries would have body armor, M4s, powerful sniper rifles, M67 grenades, and maybe an armored car.

What gave you this idea of "charging in with swords"?

[lordcooper]

Swords > guns.  Have you guys never played a JRPG?

[Aklyon]

Swords > guns.  Have you guys never played a JRPG?

But what about Religious JRPGs?