Blockbuster Weeps As Comcast Offers On-Demand Films Same Day As DVD Release

Australian Court Says Putting Event Tickets On eBay Is Perfectly Legal

from the you-bought-it,-you-own-it dept

Mon, Dec 18th 2006 1:59pm — Mike Masnick

We've been noting recently way too many attempts by people or companies to retain control of their products after they've been sold. The fact that it's been allowed with digital products continues to spread into other products as well. Down in Australia, it seems the court has put a stop to one such plan, telling the organizers of a big concert series that they can not ban the sale of tickets on eBay as they had tried to do. In fact, the court ordered them to pay eBay's legal fees. It's not clear, of course, why eBay was even involved here, as it would seem like the type of dispute that would be directly between the ticketsellers and the concert organizers -- however, it looks like eBay just wanted to make it clear that it was okay to sell tickets on the site. Of course, the concert organizers could have just taken a page from other event organizers by claiming that eBay was "profiteering on the backs of the impoverished" in order to make people feel guilty enough to stop.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

John Leghorn, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:14pm

Only matters in America
This is only a concern in America where diaper wearing adults (football fans) see a better seat than what they have being sold at the front gates when they get there.

Thanks to American cry babies, this mentality has spread across the world.

Please do us all a favor here in the states, show that we don't actually have that much influence through our crappy game of Football and all the losers that come associated with it. Please show us you ARE better than that. Thanks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:30pm
  
  Re: Only matters in America
  what the hell are you talking about? There are laws against ticket scalping in the US.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Jay Hammer, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:47pm
    
    Re: Re: Only matters in America
    Yes there are laws against ticket scalping, however, selling a ticket at an online auction is not scalping, as the seller is not setting the price, the market [buyer] dictates what he/she is willing to pay for the ticket.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - William, 18 Dec 2006 @ 3:43pm
    
    Re: Re: Only matters in America
    The bad thing about scalping is that fans always lose out. They have to pay more or camp out to get tickets. But of course that is the free market at work maximizing the value of things that have high demand.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- mbrim, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:31pm
  
  Re: Only matters in America
  That has to be the most ridiculous comment I have ever seen. So ridiculous I almost didn't want to waste my time replying.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - John Leghorn, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:35pm
    
    Re: Re: Only matters in America
    But you know I'm right.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- DittoBox, 18 Dec 2006 @ 3:00pm
  
  Re: Only matters in America
  Yes, our football is sooo bad.
  
  I mean, what kind of morons are we Americans when we openly riot in the streets when team X loses...
  
  Oh, wait, that's the other football. Across the pond.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - John Leghorn, 18 Dec 2006 @ 3:11pm
    
    Re: Re: Only matters in America
    They only riot across the pond huh? I seem to remember MANY news stories of rioters in America over their football teams that WON.
    
    Explain that to me? The fans are so stupid and childish that they have to tear apart whole city blocks because their team won?
    
    Gee, you must be right. Our football is much more civil. At least the people across the pond USE THEIR FEET...
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Oliver, 18 Dec 2006 @ 3:42pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Only matters in America
      I don't know which moronic post of yours is more deserving of this response, but let me be the first to point out that debating the validity of "our" football versus "their" football has very little to do with the story.
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
MrPaladin, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:30pm

Free market...
Sell the tikets at the price you think they will sell at... if someone buys them and resells for more then your obviously not pricing them right...

either way you shouldn't care, you got paid the price you were expecting for your tickets...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dom, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:37pm

Good timing
I just found out I'll be traveling overseas when Big Day Out hits Sydney...looks like I'll be eBaying my ticket, I should make a tidy profit.
If someone is willing to pay double, triple the selling price for a sold out festival, who am I to deny them?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wizard Prang, 18 Dec 2006 @ 2:52pm

Here's another example...
...of a corporate interest trying to control the free market.

http://tinyurl.com/ybu2bd

While I don't like the idea of ticket scalpers, the idea that they can control something after it has been sold is asinine.

If they really want to do something about this problem, perhaps they should start offering refunds on tickets...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oliver, 18 Dec 2006 @ 3:48pm

My Bad, Sorry!
After re-reading the posts I noticed John wasn't the one to "start" this argument over who's football is "right".

I'm a moron and so is DittoBox. Sorry for the confusion!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
STJ, 18 Dec 2006 @ 4:22pm

The whole reason Ebay's involved is because they have the deepest pockets
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2006 @ 5:02pm

This is not a good decision
This is good how? You might have noted that the judge called the decision "unfortunate". I think banning the reselling of tickets outright would be good for consumers and performers.

It's not as if reselling makes tickets cheaper, performers more money or helps the underprivileged get access to events they otherwise wouldn't. It creates artificial scarcity, raises prices, locks out poorer fans, encourages fraud and puts money into the pockets of people who deserve it the least.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
TechNoFear (profile), 18 Dec 2006 @ 8:37pm

No so clean cut...
It is disturbing that the creator of the event (Promoter) can not set the conditions on the product they sell.

EBAY refused to withdraw tickets when asked to by the promoter.

This case is all about the change from 'MAY' to 'WILL'.

If you buy a ticket from EBAY to the Big Day Out it 'may' be canceled at the gate. My feeling is, that after/because of this ruling, it is going to be 100% of tickets re-sold on EBAY will be canceled.

As it was bought with the scalpers details (CC) the refund goes to the scalper, not the ticket holder.

So I would be VERY wary of buying a BDO ticket from EBAY.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]