Kickstarter & DMCA

Apparently, crowd funding sites like KickStarter have not dealt with DMCA Notices until now.  Kickstarter received a DMCA notice earlier today regarding the GameStick project – a project that has raised three times the amount it asked for in a period of about a week.  Kickstarter did what the DMCA required it to do – they took down the GameStick project page and sent an email to all GameStick donors informing them about the take down. (The notice they sent to the donors is NOT required by the DMCA and the notice was a bit muddled).  About an hour later, Kickstarter had put the GameStick project page back up because they likely received a Counter-notification from the GameStick owner, PlayJam.

Whomever sent the DMCA Notice now must file an action for copyright infringement against PlayJam and deliver this to Kickstarter and then KickStarter must take down the GameStick project site until it receives instructions from the Court.  If and until then, GameStick will continue to accept donations.

Kickstarter has followed the law (at least it appears that they have) and they are now under the safe harbor protection of the DMCA meaning that they cannot be sued for contributory copyright infringement by whomever sent the DMCA Notice.

By the way, most crowdfunding sites like Kick Starter have policies against allowing people to raise money to offset legal fees and costs.