In May 2011, a New York University film student, Matias Shimada, raised $1,726 to make a film, but plagiarized another film. He later apologized to the public.
In 2012, Amanda Palmer raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter. She was criticized for asking to have musicians play with her for free on tour, after raising such a large sum.
In April 2013, filmmaker Zach Braff used Kickstarter to fund his film Wish I Was Here and raised $2 million in three days, citing the success of Rob Thomas' Veronica Mars Kickstarter as his inspiration. Braff received criticism for using the site, saying his celebrity status would draw attention from other creatives who lack celebrity recognition, the same kind of criticism regarding big figures in the gaming industry using Kickstarter. (One example is Richard Garriott, who created a successful $1+ million Kickstarter despite his personal fortune.) Kickstarter disputed these arguments by claiming, according to their metrics, big name projects attract new visitors, who in turn pledge to lesser-known projects.
In June 2013, there was controversy over the book Above the Game, a guidebook on seducing women. Outlets pointed out that the advice in the book seemed to encourage sexual assault. Although Kickstarter received a significant alert, they failed to pull the project. The site eventually wrote a letter of apology and placed a blanket ban on "Seduction guides".
On November 6, 2013, writer/director Hal Hartley launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce his upcoming film Ned Rifle, seeking a total of $384,000. On November 25, Hartley added a $9,000 reward tier offering the film's distribution rights for seven years in the United States and other countries, making his Kickstarter campaign the first to propose offering film distribution rights. Subsequently, Kickstarter notified Hartley selling distribution rights is a form of investment, which is forbidden by Kickstarter's terms and conditions, forcing Hartley to remove the option.
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In May 2014, Kickstarter blocked fundraising for a film about late-term abortion provider Kermit Gosnell. Producer Phelim McAleer claimed Kickstarter censored the project because of its graphic content and espousing a "liberal agenda". In June 2014, the project received approval for fundraising from rival site Indiegogo, raising more than $2.3 million.
Patent disputes
On September 30, 2011, Kickstarter filed a declaratory judgment suit against ArtistShare in an attempt to invalidate U.S. crowd-funding patent US 7885887, "Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work". Kickstarter asked that the patent be invalidated, or, at the very least, that the court find that Kickstarter is not liable for infringement. In February 2012, ArtistShare and Fan Funded responded to Kickstarter's complaint by filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. They asserted that patent infringement litigation was never threatened, that "ArtistShare merely approached Kickstarter about licensing their platform, including patent rights", and that "rather than responding to ArtistShare's request for a counter-proposal, Kickstarter filed this lawsuit." The judge ruled that the case could go forward. ArtistShare then responded by filing a counterclaim alleging that Kickstarter was indeed infringing its patent. In June 2015, Kickstarter won its lawsuit, with the judge declaring ArtistShare's patent invalid.
On November 21, 2012, 3D Systems filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Formlabs and Kickstarter for infringing its 3D printer patent US 5597520, "Simultaneous multiple-layer curing in stereolithography." Formlabs had raised $2.9 million in a Kickstarter campaign to fund its own competitive printer. The company said that Kickstarter caused "irreparable injury and damage" to its business by promoting the Form 1 printer, and taking a 5% cut of pledged funds. A six-month stay was granted by the judge for settlement talks in which Kickstarter did not participate.
On January 23, 2015, Alphacap Ventures LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against multiple crowdfunding platforms, including Indiegogo, CircleUp, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Gust, RocketHub & Innovational Funding, for three patents — US 7848976, US 7908208 and US 8433630. According to Bloomberg, Alphacap Ventures provides strategic, operations, and financial advisory services in the United States along with other financial services. Elsewhere, Alphacap Ventures is described as a patent troll.
Monopolistic practices
In December 2024, Coast Runner Industries sued Kickstarter for violations of federal antitrust law in response to the suspension of its desktop CNC campaign.
Data breach
In February 2014, Kickstarter announced a data breach of almost 5.2 million users' data, including email addresses, usernames and salted SHA-1 hashes of passwords.
Unionizing efforts
On March 19, 2019, Kickstarter's staff announced plans to unionize as part of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), which would make Kickstarter the only major tech company to have a union. Shortly after the announcement, three senior staffers released a memo dissenting against the decision, claiming that it is too extreme and that it would be a "misappropriation of unions for use by privileged workers." According to Kickstarter employees, they wanted to found a union both for enabling collective bargaining for wages and for "giving employees more clout," allowing them to work for goals that they saw in their interest and the public's interest.
In May, Aziz Hasan, then CEO of Kickstarter, announced that the company would require an election for the union rather than voluntarily recognizing it, saying that "our view is that we are better set up to be successful without the framework of a union."
On September 16, the employees filed a complaint against Kickstarter with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after two employees were terminated. According to the workers, they were fired for unionizing, although the company says it was for "performance issues." After these allegations, some Kickstarter creators have started a campaign against Kickstarter to let its employees unionize.
On September 28, Kickstarter confirmed that it would not recognise the unionisation effort. In a statement addressed to project creators, the CEO stated that unionisation would turn workplace relations "inherently adversarial" and that it "doesn't reflect who we are as a company." Additionally, the CEO confirmed that Kickstarter stood by its decision to fire the two employees and would be pursuing legal action to fight their claims. The statement immediately resulted in criticism and calls for boycotts from creators who had previously used the platform, while writer Neil Gaiman tweeted that he would be unlikely to post support for or links to new Kickstarter campaigns "as long as they are anti-union."
Kickstarter employees continued to file complaints to the NLRB, which forced Kickstarter to allow its employees a formal vote on unionization. The vote was held on the morning of February 18, 2020, with 46 voting in favor of joining the OPEIU and 37 voting against. The CEO at the time, Aziz Hasan, said after the vote, "We support and respect this decision, and we are proud of the fair and democratic process that got us here." With this, the OPEIU will now work with the union effort, Kickstarter United, to bargain with Kickstarter management for a contract.
As of May 2, 2020, 60% of the workforce was part of the union.
Blockchain
On December 8, 2021, Kickstarter announced a plan to develop a decentralized protocol on blockchain platform Celo to build an open source and blockchain-based crowdfunding infrastructure and then move its own website to that system. The announcement prompted backlash from creators and backers on Twitter, many of whom pledged to abandon Kickstarter if the move went forward. On December 15, a week later, Kickstarter responded to the controversy in a blog post that clarified the company's position but did not indicate a change of plans.
