Censorship PayPal freezes eroge development team's account denying them their Kickstarter funding.

Toffer Team is a eroge game developer that have raised $35,116 on kickstarter Archive for their latest visual novel.
LIP! Lewd Idol Project.

But PayPal have decided to lockout there account and ALL the funds that was raised via the Kickstarter campaign.
And there reson given was due to there content beign related to, according to PayPal, "sexual services".
Quoting there latest
developments post. Archive​

Something terrible has happened. Please read...​

Normally, I would use this update section to share positive news, development progress, and previews about the project we're so passionate about and that we were able to start thanks to you guys. I couldn't be any happier with all the comments, reviews, and general love that Vol. 1 has been receiving over the past couple of weeks. However this time around, I'm obligated to share some sad news... And it is honestly heartbreaking for me to write this here. I'm sorry.

As some of you may already know, PayPal has locked our account and ALL the funds that we had raised via this Kickstarter campaign last year.

Apparently, this has been due to our content beign related to, according to them, "sexual services".

Being left out of the platform is not the problem. The biggest problem here is that they have locked all our funds we were using to develop all future LIP releases and they won't even allow us to withdraw or use any of it. They have literally tied our hands and deprived of whatever funds we needed to fulfill our future releases. We have obtained that funds thanks to your love and support, you guys spent your hard earned money to support us and our dream project. And that's why this whole situation makes me feel sad, angry, and disappointed at the same time.

It is truly sad that a company so huge and with such an important name in today's world like PayPal treats its clients this way, leaving us without any possibility of reply, depriving us of our funds without any prior notice and, from one day to the next, leaving us without the possibility keep doing what we love and are so passionate about, which is the development of adult games and specially, this project which was our first ever crowdfunding campaign.

I just want to let you know that this won't end here, we're not going to give up so easily. We're not going to allow this kind of things to keep happening like nothing. Today it was us, tomorrow it could be you or any other of your favorite lewd content creators. Please spread the word about this, I don't want this tragedy happening to anybody else.

The Lewd Idol Project series will keep going no matter what. This is our job, this is our passion, and we won't let them win. I just wanted to be 100% transparent with you and tell you the whole story before you hear it anywhere else. I'll keep you posted about any news here as always.


Thanks for your constant love and support, I love you.

Toffer

If you want to support them you can buy the game for less than $6 on itch.io or about 2€ on jastusa.​

 

[Narbray]

..... How is it supposed to be legal for the company to block their funds like that, they can't sue Paypal for this?

That is already abuse and they are literally blocking their money without checking in advance if it is money obtained legally or not, they are literally stealing more than 50 thousand dollars, I do not know what the laws will be but this does not seem very legal.

 

[Semi-Senioritis]

..... How is it supposed to be legal for the company to block their funds like that, they can't sue Paypal for this?

That is already abuse and they are literally blocking their money without checking in advance if it is money obtained legally or not, they are literally stealing more than 50 thousand dollars, I do not know what the laws will be but this does not seem very legal.

"You agreed to their terms whenever you made your account. If you don't like it make your own platform." Would probably be the response.

 

[Forzue]

Never use services like Paypal and Patreon, just use sites like SubscribeStar, they are NSFW friendly

 

[RikkaNoodles]

This is the norm with ShitPal. I had my account completely frozen for 180 days because they didn't like the client I received money from. When the 180 days were up, they stole the $500 I had in my balance to pay for the so-called "damages" I put on them by "violating" their AUP.

They don't have to have a reason to ban you, either, as per their TOS. Unfortunately, it looks like these devs DID violate their TOS, which makes them extra fucked, because they can't even sue for the money back now. A lot of people don't realize this, but PayPal has NSFW or any kind of adult content explicitly banned in their TOS. That does include commissioning NSFW artists. You're not likely to get banned if you aren't public about it, but you will 100% get fucked over if you make it obvious what you're doing.

Let this be a lesson to everyone - game devs and all - NEVER LEAVE A BIG BALANCE IN PAYPAL. They unfortunately will likely never see that money back, as once the 180 days are up, it will be taken away for "damages". Hopefully, they at least put SOME of it in a bank account and didn't lose it all.

 

[Narbray]

"You agreed to their terms whenever you made your account. If you don't like it make your own platform." Would probably be the response.

I know but uff ... there should be more regulations so these sites are literally stealing their customers' money.
there are many people protesting stupid things and no one about the things that really matter, like these services that almost look like scams.

 

[Fennec_fox]

Can you imagine a company that takes away your money like they deserve it and then blames you for jack shit and then you can't do anything about it. Paypal sounds like a mafia tbh. I hope that fewer devs and artists will be in such situations.

 

[erobotan]

Technically, paypal should ban Kickstarter as well right?

..... How is it supposed to be legal for the company to block their funds like that, they can't sue Paypal for this?

That is already abuse and they are literally blocking their money without checking in advance if it is money obtained legally or not, they are literally stealing more than 50 thousand dollars, I do not know what the laws will be but this does not seem very legal.

You can sue them if you're in Europe because they treat paypal as bank or something like that.

if it's in US then you're out of luck.

 

[immahnoob]

"You agreed to their terms whenever you made your account. If you don't like it make your own platform." Would probably be the response.

Contracts with illegal terms are not binding contracts, unless the US has some other notion of law, it should be the same over there.

 

[Narbray]

Contracts with illegal terms are not binding contracts, unless the US has some other notion of law, it should be the same over there.

is what I say, although you have accepted the terms and conditions of use if there is something illegal in them a claim is still valid
It is like you are trying to scam someone by making them sign a contract, a court will continue to take it as a scam especially if the contract has illegal terms and conditions

 

[grapedApe]

Now paypal is teaming up with the anti-defamation league to ban accounts linked to anyone involved with "extremism".

 

[erobotan]

Now paypal is teaming up with the anti-defamation league to ban accounts linked to anyone involved with "extremism".

This make it harder to say that toffer's account get banned because bussiness reason.

 

[PhantomXero1x]

Pateron and Paypal are only just a day away from self destruction.