MediaMoghul

It doesn't sound very solid to me. Who is auditing the books? If you form a corporation, which I have done, and you decide to go public, there are several hurdles you must leap to insure that there are audit points, checks, and balances, to protect the investors.

I don't see how this website is going to insure that the investors will reap the rewards of their investment. Even if the production doesn't make any money, the investors may be able to recoup some of their investment, if there are assets, or there has been any income from the project. The accounting gets rather complicated, and I would think that the Securities and Exchange Commission would have some jurisdiction over a legitimate operation, of this nature.

The only one I can see benefiting from this scheme is the one who manages to dupe thousands of people into investing in his/her project. With absolutely no legal terms on how that money is to be paid back, with or without appreciation, I'd think the project person could just take the money and run.

My prediction is that the idea, although intriguing, wasn't very well thought out, and it will go nowhere.

Probably put together by idealists who haven't left the renaissance, where artists had patrons who were wealthy beyond belief, and supported the lives and efforts artists in return for painting portraits of themselves. "Hey, Gus! Michelangelo wants another hunk of marble- can you send your surf down to Cassius and pick one up?"
Even in those times though, artists had to sacrifice integrity to a financier, and I don't think posting a note on the "town pole" would've convinced the blacksmiths and bakers to throw in their half-pennies for a collaboration.

In this capitalist, narcissistic, and hollow world, we artists have a new patron- it's called the government, and welfare. And those don't even come with any guarantees... and contain their own levels of censorship.

So imagine, if you will, the difference between one "benefactor" with twenty grand, and 20,000 benefactors with a dollar each. That's a lot of pockets that will want a refill (the shipping costs alone would negate the benefit of spreading the cost), and "investors" with different standards and expectations for the final project (even if you DO finish your project, if some religious person doesn't like the main character being a smoker, you might have to refund him, or at the VERY least, DEAL with him). Now, granted, this looks like a "pay, forget, get paid" kind of deal, but if that IS so, then why would someone throw the money there, and not at the stock market?

Imagine you're a rich film financier. Are you gonna find this site and say "hey! I happen to have extra cash- let's throw it around!".. No way! And I don't see a poor artist like myself checking it daily for fun new projects to anonymously throw cash at. Come to think of it, I don't see ANYONE doing that.

So I'm putting my chips in with Oaksterz.

And it could even be worse than that. The site might simply be a scheme for the site creators to cash in on everyone's enthusiasm. They get 5% of all moneys collected, subject to change at any time. Also, they bill the seller weekly, and they will refund your money, less expenses, at some, unspecified time, if/when you don't reach your target. I'm going to stop short of saying it is a scam, because the developers may have good intentions. I do have a personal bias against this sort of business. The kind where you just insert yourself into the money stream and siphon off a flat rate for yourself, as reimbursement for being so clever. It rubs me in the worst way, when the brokers are the only ones making any money. I guess I'm just not a good capitalist.

The postage expense is a good point. Also, the site claims that investors will "Be able to take part in the key decisions about the project". That's just frightening. $15 gets you a seat on the board!

Ok, before I get too critical ... I should point out that my track record for picking winners isn't so good. When Google first arrived on the scene, I think I said something like "Oh, great, another search engine startup ... that's going nowhere". I scoffed at PayPal and EBay, and I was just rolling on the floor, laughing uncontrollably when YouTube first appeared.

Yeah oaks...have you heard about this myspace thing? On topic: Personally, I'd be wary of anything that seems to good to be true, even if it may not be, do you really want to gamble with money that you could spend elsewhere? Econ 101 taught me this is called Opportunity Cost. If you invest some money poorly, what opportunity do you lose?

It's a clever concept, providing they get all the legal mumbo jumbo straight and protect the seller.
If the idea does take hold, it seems like the "points" could be sold in other venues.
Wouldn't that make for an interesting Ebay auction??

So far the details on the site are way too vague, but it's worth watching. This could be the latest in dot-com stocks! Oh wait a minute.....

Neil