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New England Patriots Obtain Online Ticket Reseller Names
Billosaur writes "The New England Patriots sued on-line ticket re-seller StubHub (a subsidiary of eBay) to obtain the list of names of people who tried to buy or sell Patriots tickets using the service. StubHub lost an appeal in Massachusetts state court last week, and was compelled to hand over the list of 13,000 names. It is currently not clear what the Patriots organization intends to do with the names, but they have intimated that they may revoke the privileges of any season ticket holders on the list. The Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, said the court order to turn over the names infringes on the privacy rights of Patriots fans. At issue is whether using the on-line service allows an end-run around team rules and Massachusetts state law, by allowing ticket holders to charge extreme mark-ups on their tickets." How does this ruling apply to other pieces of transient property?
in a fair society, venues would be able to set prices at market prices, thus eliminating the need for entities such as stub-hub. However, setting prices at market would likely cause an uproar, so why should anyone have sympathy for organizations/individuals trying to profit from charity to society?
I'm not 100% sure where I stand on issues like this.
A part of me gets sick when I go on eBay and find tickets for a concert or sporting event that is up for sale by a "professional" scalper. Especially annoying are when these tickets were obtained from a fan club membership, or sold out within minutes only to appear right on eBay. It makes it more expensive for a real fan to get decent seats.
Then the other part of me is a capitalist pig and says there's nothing wrong with that.
As for selling these season tickets... I don't see what the big deal is. People have done that for years, only now it's easier. They've also bought season tickets for the purpose of giving to clients (or prospects).
-David
I'm sure like all tickets this come with strings attached. But this issue is about two questions, can the Patriots force a company to turn over lists of sellers, what privacy issue does this have, what is included in the list, do they know how much I sold my ticket for? Is this concept of restrictions on sales fair? Can I buy a ticket and be told what to do with it (can MSFT sell me an XBox then prevent me from modding it?) In Ohio folks sell pencils with free tickets to the Michigan Ohio State game. Since your not selling the tickets this is legal. What if StubHub allowed a purchase and processing fee set by the seller I could sell the ticket at face value then pump up the purchase and processing fees I will charge to get you the ticket (like shipping on ebay)? In a broad sense issue has implications elsewhere, at what point do I own the item and have the freedom of control over it? When is it truly my XBox and when is it enough my house that the HOA can't tell me what to do? p.s. Combine this with a video tape scandal and it seems like the Patriots are trying to loose fans.
If the government doesn't intervene, then companies usually have little incentive to play fair. You may not understand it yet, but entities with a lot of money can make your life very difficult if they want to. That's also why there's laws against racketeering, profiteering, price gouging, and anti-competitive behaviour.
Make no mistake; Capitalism is not without flaw, and without government intervention, the economy would crumble just like those failed communist countries everybody uses as examples. Greed ultimately ruins everything.