No, it's legally absolutely the same.
No, it is not. How company X pays taxes on the money they earn from a Kickstarter does not classify the type of service that Kickstarter itself offers.
If WotC would start a kickstarter drive for a full FRCS and I were to pledge 50€ to receive a copy of the FRCS once it's finished, that's legally actually me pre-ordering the FRCS from WotC.
Putting money down as part of an agreement that you'll receive something in exchange for it is a matter of contract law, and that goes with regard to anything where there's an exchange of something of value. In other words, that type of deal has a scope that covers more than just retail transactions. Trying to say that anything that involves the exchange of money where something is expected is necessarily a matter of retail sales is disingenuous.
There's no other legal transaction that is applicable to what transpired.
Absolutely wrong. There are many other types of transactions where money changes hands with the expectation that you'll receive something for it. You can donate to a charity and get a book of stamps from them for having done so, but it's still tax-deductible.
Yes, I carry the risk that the FRCS I just pre-ordered might never be completed and my money will be lost, but that is fully possible with certain kinds of pre-orders.
You keep operating under the principle that things that are similar are therefore identical. That's not the case.
I don't give WotC a loan, I don't gain buy share in WotC, I don't make a donation, I don't give them a gift - these are all legally defined types of transaction.
You also don't buy a product from them, which is also a legally-defined type of transaction. You're not helping your case by stating what it's not; you need to actually support what it
is, and you haven't done that yet.
Technically it's a special sort of employment contract in which Wotc is paid to perform a work for me to the best of their ability without being accountable for success (a type of contract often done with software companies actually) and me carrying the risk of failure (unless I can blame WotC with severe neglect of their duties)
You do realize that this completely flies in the face of them being a retailer, right? Unless you think that retail stores also are a "special sort of employment contract."
No crowfunding is what the crowd does, KS only offers a platform on which the the would-be entrepreneur can present himself to the crowd.
Which means that they're not a retailer.
That's different from mediator who truly go and present promising entrepreneur to would-be backers (e.g. actively seek them out with a collection of projects and convice them to buy in, while kickstarter provides a mostly passive servie).
Neither of which are a retail outlet.
No, it's designed to give it's user the opportunity to do so with each other.
No, it's designed to give its users the opportunity to seek funds to create something, or pledge funds to help it be created.
Which is legally you pre-ordering them. There is no other applicable legal transaction.
See above; this is flat-out wrong.
That's how it's taxed, that are the legal rights and obligations attained by both parties.
Again, this has already been demonstrated to be untrue; just having "legal rights and obligations" does not meet the (so far not cited by you) "legal definition" of what constitutes a "pre-order."
By the by, there's no listing for "pre-order" (or "preorder") at
Black's Law Dictionary. So when you keep leaning on the "legal definition" of the term, you're not at all on solid ground.
If WotC were to use KS to crowdfund a full FRCS it would directly be selling said FRCS to me instead of using it's own fund or loans to produce it and then sell it through B&N; Amazon, FLGS, etc. thus directly depriving them of this business, putting a serious wedge in their partnership.
Flat-out incorrect. It's not depriving those other outlets of the opportunity to compete with them for that product because that product does not yet exist. Likewise, when the Kickstarter closes and that book is in a store, then Kickstarter cannot compete with that store because it does not make the product available. There's no competition going on.