AT&T Tech Support 360Ticketmaster wins injunction against broker-software firm
A quick follow-up to last week's post about ticket brokers. Tuesday, a federal judge issued an injunction against RMG Technologies, barring the company from "creating, trafficking in, facilitating the use of or using computer programs or other automatic devices to circumvent" the system that Ticketmaster uses to control online ticket purchases.
According to testimony from former broker Chris Kovach, he had used RMG's software to buy hundreds of tickets at a time through Ticketmaster's site before human fans had a chance to do so, then turned around and sold these tickets through brokerages like StubHub. The judge in the case agreed that Ticketmaster had a reasonable chance of proving that RMG violated Ticketmaster copyrights, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the Ticketmaster site's terms of use.
This is a win for consumers, but I don't believe this is the end of this issue. Recall what happened with file-trading networks: as soon as the crackdown began in the U.S, they moved overseas. It might be trickier with ticket brokers, as they have to ship a physical object--a concert ticket--back into the United States, where it could theoretically be seized at the border. But I suspect as long as people are willing to pay above face-value for concert tickets, brokers will use every available method to snap up the good seats as soon as they go on sale.
Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure.
