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Clearly not a lot of lawyers have time to get involved with this stuff! And this post is totally open to comment and critique from other lawyers thinking the same thing (would love to hear from you). But with all the complaining and talk of refunds (refunds are very unlikely with crowdfunding), I thought some of you might want to actually take action rather than pointing guns at your screens (I loved the sword). This would be basic legal advice to anyone with a complaint against a company in the US, Canada, or Mexico.
I would not have bothered with this until about 24 hours ago. But the blatant misinformation (fake queue; breaking of their own policies to never silence the community; and otherwise lack of communication to their customers) is completely unrelated to Dead Matter or gaming. It is, instead, a serious business legal question for any business that has made $2m in taxable income. Quantum Integrity Software does not seem to realize they are a business registered in Canada and must follow Canadian law on business practice. That's not a joke.
So here's my advice: report the company to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Canada. Again, not radical, but the regular first legal step for any company making misleading statements to customers.
Here is the link to file a complaint (click button at bottom): https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started
You will have to enter somewhat detailed information about the company to initiate the complaint. Here are the Canadian gov pages listing the incorporation information for Quantum Integrity Software (it will allow you to file the complaint in full):
https://opencorporates.com/companies/ca/10169838
https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/cc/CorporationsCanada/fdrlCrpDtls.html?corpId=10169838
This is all public information for a reason. Canada has laws allowing you to report fraudulent companies directly for investigation with the Canadian government. A BBB report does not immediately lead to investigation - that only happens once the company either does not reply to the initial query to the company (they have a very short time to reply before it moves to the next level) or their reply seems fraudulent or reveals the company's legality and financials are not in order.
BBB takes extra interest in crowdfunded companies because their finances and legal side often do not follow the law, and the people who start and run these companies often think they are immune to the law because in a video game they can do whatever they want.
So if you really want to do something more than complain or post memes - and I understand that's mostly what people do on Reddit, keep going with it - here's the basic legal advice any lawyer would give you.
I didn't think it was a legal issue until what happened yesterday with the misleading information and the company actually taking down their own website, forums, and discord to prevent communication. While many defend the company saying, "but we just don't know what really happened,stop the conjecture," transparency is legally paramount for any company. This is actually an important legal issue that should be investigated because there are actual rules and laws that must be followed in a country like Canada.
Cheers.
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