20 Oct 2007
New England Patriots Obtain Online Ticket Reseller Names

The more I hear of cases like this, the more I've come to believe that I'm right on in thinking that this is the major economic issue of our times: the right to own property. I either own the ticket or I don't - I'd bet that most fans think they own their tickets, and it's now obvious that at least one team doesn't see things that way.

Why does this matter to the Pats, anyway? If the tickets have a higher resale vale than is on their face, that's merely evidence that the ticket was underpriced in the first place - that's the way the market, any market, works.

The New England Patriots sued on-line ticket re-seller StubHub (a subsidiary of eBay) to obtain the list of names of people who tried to buy or sell Patriots tickets using the service. StubHub lost an appeal in Massachusetts state court last week, and was compelled to hand over the list of 13,000 names. It is currently not clear what the Patriots organization intends to do with the names, but they have intimated that they may revoke the privileges of any season ticket holders on the list. The Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, said the court order to turn over the names infringes on the privacy rights of Patriots fans. At issue is whether using the on-line service allows an end-run around team rules and Massachusetts state law, by allowing ticket holders to charge extreme mark-ups on their tickets.

(link) [Slashdot]

08:05 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place

Now this is an example of thinking inside the box ...

Japanese fashion designers are devising a variety of novel solutions that they hope will ease growing fears of crime.

(link) [NYT > NYTimes.com Home]

07:56 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link