You've seen it a million times. Tickets go on sale for any given show, and are immediately sold out. Maybe some lucky fans got some of the tickets, but the majority of them were likely scooped up by ticket-buying bots for a scalper to sell on third party websites for an insane markup.
While I'm sure you'll still be seeing these shitty practices in effect in the future, S. 3183, the “Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016” or the “BOTS Act of 2016,” has been singed into legislation and makes the use of these bots illegal.
Engadget explains the law a little better.
Under the new law, it is illegal for anyone to use a bot or other software to obtain more tickets than a specified limit allows or circumvent the posted rules for making a fair purchase. It also makes it illegal to resell any tickets than were bought with the help of a ticket bot. Both the person who employed the software and anyone who has knowledge of how the tickets were obtained can be held liable for the offense.
The BOTS Act also gives state governments the power to bring a civil suit to US district court on behalf of its residents. During those proceedings, states can seek to obtain damages, restitution or other compensation for the affected residents in the case. The law gives the Federal Trade Commission the power to intervene in those civil cases as well.
While this is great and could possibly deter the practice a little bit, blockage of IP addresses and other ways to circumvent knowing your identity still might screw things up. Though something is definitely better than nothing, right?
[via MetalSucks]
