A lawsuit filed in California by concert giant AXS has revealed a legal and technological battle between ticket scalpers and platforms like Ticketmaster and AXS, in which scalpers have figured out how to extract “untransferable” tickets from their accounts by generating entry barcodes on parallel infrastructure that the scalpers control and which can then be sold and transferred to customers.
By reverse-engineering how Ticketmaster and AXS actually make their electronic tickets, scalpers have essentially figured out how to regenerate specific, genuine tickets that they have legally purchased from scratch onto infrastructure that they control. In doing so, they are removing the anti-scalping restrictions put on the tickets by Ticketmaster and AXS.
So Ticketmaster and AXS are suing to maintain their monopoly on scalping?
Scalpers exploit a lack of supply, the same as ticket master. Normally the answer would be to increase supply but if being in person is important for concerts then perhaps bigger venues or multiple showings isn’t feasible. A culture shift towards something like watch-parties, like football and other sports, may be the answer in the long-run.
Scalpers are a consequence of freedom and perhaps there are good reasons to limit that here but I see it happening in other fields where I think it shouldn’t and wouldn’t want to encourage it (i.e. hardware and software tied to an online account).
Which they create by bulk buying seats, to hold them hostage unless you are willing to pay extortionately inflated prices.
Scalpers are not heros, or good guys. They are people trying to exploit a situation to everyone elses detriment.
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