Last week the crowd funding website Kickstarter was at the center of a controversy involving a project it allowed to be funded. A dating guide for men called “Above the Game” drew criticism for its suggestions that men be overly aggressive in their sexual pursuits of women. One excerpt from the book said “Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances.”

After protests, Kickstarter offered an apology for not removing the project, but it raised questions of the site’s guidelines and how it determines projects’ legitimacy. A few weeks ago, a bogus project to fund the first 100 percent Japanese Kobe beef jerky raised $120,000 from over 3,000 backers before being removed from the website.

Why do Kickstarters’ guidelines seem to be so lax? Should Kickstarter have more regulation over which projects it allows on the site or should crowdfunding websites have community enforcement?  

Guests:
Julianne Pepitone, reporter for CNNMoney

Jason Cooper, making “Kickstarted,” a documentary on crowdfunding, publicized Kickstarter’s Kobe beef jerky scam