Kickstarter has announced updates to its terms of service that are intended to streamline the crowdfunding process and ensure that backers get their rightful reward for supporting a project.
Set to go into effect on Oct. 19, the newly detailed policy emphasizes the project creator's responsibility to backers, particularly if a project gets canceled, Ars Technica reported.
Kickstarter launched in 2009 and has since handled more than $1 billion in crowdfunding, according to Gigaom. The site has updated its terms of service several times over the years and in June announced changes that made it simpler and faster for developers to launch their projects.
The latest policy revision acknowledged the issue that arises when projects get canceled or postponed and backers are left hanging.
"For the overwhelming majority of projects, it's pretty simple: creators finish the work they planned, backers are happy, and nobody sweats the details. But there are exceptions," Kickstarter's Yancey Strickler said in a company blog post.
"Sometimes problems come up, projects don't go according to plan, and people wind up in the dark about what's supposed to happen next. So we're spelling it out--what's expected from backers, what's expected from creators, and what needs to happen if a project runs into trouble."
If a project crashes and burns, the creator needs to keep backers in the loop with updates that show how funds have been used and offer to refund backers who have not received their reward, as detailed in section four of the new terms of service.
A recent example of a project that floundered is a video game from science fiction author Neal Stephenson, who announced Thursday that the title has been officially canceled. The video game was a 2012 Kickstarter project that garnered $526,000 in funding.
The terms of service change in June streamlined the creator's set of guidelines, trimming it from 1,000 words to 300, while campaign categories that were previously not in the running, such as bath and beauty products, were allowed for the first time.
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