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Congress Joins Battle Against Ticket Bots (csoonline.com)
itwbennett writes: A pair of companion bills now pending in the House and Senate would define the use of bots to buy tickets as an 'unfair and deceptive practice' under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act. It would also become a federal crime, and create a right of action so that private parties can sue in federal court to recover damages. But if a similar law in Tennessee is any example, making the practice illegal doesn't make it any easier to find the people responsible for the bots. The Tennessean reported a year ago that, 'despite the apparent prevalence of the practice, no one has been prosecuted for this hard-to-prove crime in Davidson County.' This may be just another example of members of Congress not understanding the problem, but some experts say that making the bots illegal is at least a start. 'It helps to shine a light on a problem,' says Rami Essaid, cofounder and CEO of Distil Networks.
How is this any different from High Frequency Trading?
Because one made regular (ungodly large) campaign contributions to the loops in Washington and the other one does not?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
I thought it was going to be about Photo Radar bots issuing speeding / red light tickets.
Why should it be illegal? Why should I care about this? If something is too expensive because the ticket face price is too much, or the reseller's price is too high, I don't go. I don't see what the problem is.
I don't respond to AC's.
All the ticket sellers have to do is use reverse auction style ticket pricing. Start with (very) high prices when the tickets initially go on sale then drop the price on a day-by-day basis as the event gets closer.
That way there is no practical way to buy low sell high.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
I don't understand why this is a problem for the ticket seller. Once the money for the tickets changes hands, who cares after that? Plus, what's wrong with reselling tickets? Right of first sale is something we see getting stomped on pretty darn often.
I see the same thing happening at RV parks and hotels when a popular event comes to town. As soon as it is available, all spaces at the RV park get purchased.
If ticket sellers want to do something, just raise prices. There will be a price point where the bot purchasers will be priced out of the market, and they will go away. Basic invisible hand economics.
Why would you want to screw over your fans by selling all your tickets to scalpers?
If you set your prices properly, there should be no margin for scalpers. Scalpers are a symptom of a market failure. Trying to fix the problem with legislation is doomed to failure. Laws should not be protecting dumb business practices.
The solution is a reverse auction. You set a high initial price, say, 30 days before the event. Some people will pay that price, because they want to be sure to get a seat. Then you lower the price by a few percent each day. If sales are lagging, you lower the price faster. If sales are ahead of predictions, you lower the price more slowly. Frugal people may wait, to get a lower price, but then they run the risk of getting nothing. You end up with no empty seats (unless people are unwilling to attend at any price), everyone pays what they think it is worth, and, since there is no margin for scalpers, all the money goes to support the venue and the performers.
Or we could just pass a law, raise taxes, and hire more police.
I mean, it's really a shame about gun-related deaths, traffic deaths that outnumber even those, crumbling infrastructure that makes us look closer to third-world every day, and higher infant mortality numbers than seen anywhere else in the western world, but at least they've taken a firm hand on ticket scalpers. It's like the f-ing cavalry showing up in the nick of time to save us. Thanks, really! Signed, America
What the bots (read: the people running the bots) do is not much different than a schoolyard bully elbowing his way into the lunch line ahead of you to grab the last couple of desserts that you wanted, and then offering to sell them to you at an inflated price.
I disagree, that's a bad analogy. It's more like the schoolyard bully getting to the line before you (without any elbowing or bad behavior at all, but maybe he can run faster), grabbing up all the desserts, and selling them to you at an inflated price. You should have gotten to the line faster.
The only argument I've found against this practice that really holds water is the idea that the performers want to keep tickets affordable so all their fans have a fair chance to attend, instead of jacking up the prices so only the wealthy fans can.
I disagree, that's a bad analogy. It's more like the schoolyard bully getting to the line before you (without any elbowing or bad behavior at all, but maybe he can run faster), grabbing up all the desserts, and selling them to you at an inflated price. You should have gotten to the line faster.
But that's just it...you can be in line before them, and their massive, tidal-wave hammering of the site with their botnet means you still lose out.
Saying, "You should have gotten to the line faster" is like saying "You should have bought those tickets before anyone else could", or possibly, "You should have run your own botnet to make sure you had a fighting chance."
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
You can split the diff. Use a technology that scans the credit card, confirms the "reservation", and then prints the tickets at the door. Now, only the original purchaser can attend with his party.
This is wrong because you don't want to punish people who's plans for that weekend were changed by circumstance. I've had vacation plans ruined before because of a serious illness in one of the people involved. Locking the ticket to a CC number means that the original owners can't even GIVE the tickets away for free. Most concerts and such do not allow you to cancel reservations after a certain date. It would be better to give the FBI something legitimate to do for once and have them locate and prosecute all the bot owners.