In an important first step towards regulating businesses that
fund their ventures online, the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) unanimously approved the proposal of rules that will govern
the subject. The full text of the SEC's proposed
crowdfunding rules, may be obtained here as a PDF.
Crowdfunding – raising money online to fund projects,
causes and even companies – to the public has been stuck in
an odd state of limbo after receiving the thumbs-up in early 2012
from the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act.
Meanwhile, it has become white-hot with popularity, with Web sites
like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Prosper turning into household
names.
The JOBS Act, which passed 390-26 in the House and 73-26 in the
Senate, was designed to ease restrictions on capital raising across
a broad spectrum of finance, from IPOs to private placements and
start-up seed financing. It left regulation to the SEC, where the
subject has been mired in rulemaking
