Ebay In Trouble

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Kosh, Jun 14, 2005.

  1. Kosh

    Kosh New Member

    Anyone hear about someone selling tickets to Live8 on ebay?

    Anyone else think that Geldoff telling people to hack into ebay and shut them down was bang out of order?

    I mean ebay USERS sell millions of things every day, i dont think ebay should be held responsible for what a user is selling...even if it is unethical (not illegal). Im sure people sell all kinds of stuff...just like they have for a long time before ebay.

    And if you want to talk about unethical...talk about geldoff encouraging illegal activities.
     
  2. TheCount

    TheCount Happiness is a mindset

    Its a matter of the money isn't going where it should be
     
  3. Anth

    Anth Daft. Supporter

    I saw it on the ITV news earlier, and I saw the UK boss of ebay say they were going to shut all ticket auctions down.

    Strange that I have just done a search for them and found 448 results. Quite a few of them are going for £10,000,000, so Geldoff's plea must be working :D
     
  4. Sgt_Major

    Sgt_Major Ex Global Mod Supporter

    I say eBay should remove the auctions......


    but then I think they shouldnt allow bidding on gig tickets anyway.....they should narrow down on ticket touts....
     
  5. Kwajman

    Kwajman Penguin in paradise....

    Once a person owns a ticket, he/she should be able to do with it whatever they want. They can sell it on e-bay, throw it away or make it into a paper airplane for all I care.

    And regarding "fake" bids. There is one lawsuit going on here in Wisconsin regarding someone way overbidding on e-bay then backing out of the auction when they had no intention to pay. The seller sued for breach of contract and most people here think he's going to win.
     
  6. JayKayD

    JayKayD Meet my friend PAIN!

    Well this is in the UK and i don't think they are allowed to do that here because of the data protection act, and sueing isn't as effective and so doesn't happen as much as in the US.

    Legally they are allowed to do what they want, but the argument is over the morals of it, and as old Bob put it; "It is completely against the interests of the poor. The people who are selling these tickets on websites are miserable wretches who are capitalising on people's misery".

    As for Bob telling people to hack Ebay, i think you have to remember Bob isn't some politician who has to watch what they say, he just says whatever the hell he wants. He obviously feels very strongly about it (understandably) and sees Ebay as being just as guilty for letting it happen.
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2005
  7. Falcore

    Falcore almost acceptable

    In Aus recently there was a big uproar about this. A festival called Splendour in the Grass sold out in a matter of hours, then the next day there were people selling up to up to 20 tix per user with mark-ups of sometimes 400%.
    The national broadcaster here, ABC, has a youth radio station called Triple J, and whilst they didn't advocate any action towards Ebay of the sellers, they directed enough attention and opinion towards it that it started something of a small protest, with hundreds of irate music fans flooding ebay with false offers.
    I thought it was funny more than anything else.

    If people own the tix, then they can sell. Pretty simple.
    People who WANT the tix just need to make it clear that they won't stand for crap like that. If you could somehow organise fans to all boycott ebay, scalpers would get the idea pretty quick and be left with 20 tickets and no one to sell to. But that's never going to happen....
     
  8. Mark_Campbell

    Mark_Campbell Valued Member

    i agree people shouldnt sell them but geldof really ought to learn some tact, he may not be a politician officially, but the guy is an activist, a celebrity and head of an effort to actually do some good. Fantastic way to undermine support is this. It may inspire others activists, but he needs the general public on his side, and the general public dont like being pawns to terrorists. Attacking ebay is wrong, calling for millions to descent on scotland and riot against g8 is wrong and "let them know its christmas time" is so wrong for a mostly muslim continent its sickening.

    theres a real chance of some good being done here and people need to be active come g8, but geldof is in danger of turning off any politicians (the people that actually have the power to do something for the next 5 years) by spawning this eco-terror rhetoric.

    cancel africas debt, get fair trade, build up there economies and fight aids, but lets not use it as some anti-capitalist excuse to watch idiots and kids (who really dont care about the issue just wear the bands to be cool) run around attacking scottish people because africas in a sorry state.
     
  9. adouglasmhor

    adouglasmhor Not an Objectivist

    Unauthorised ticket resale has been illegal here for over a year so sellers would have a hard time suing as they are breaking the law, it is also a condition of issue for the tickets that they are not transferable.
    As for running around attacking Scottish people, I can think of many less painful ways of having your attitude adjusted.
     
  10. Daydreamer

    Daydreamer New Member

    I dont think the people should be selling the tickets on e-bay, or, if they do they should donate most of the money back to the charity. However, Bob is beging to step out of line, if anyone else tried to encourage illigal activity like that they would be shot streight out of the water, however, if the police tried anything agaist bob, he would be made a marter of. Though I agree it is probably one of the most important issues around, there are better ways to encourage support than trying to hack into e-bay.
     
  11. Sgt_Major

    Sgt_Major Ex Global Mod Supporter

    a little clarification....he doesnt mean HACK ebay ..... he suggested sabotaging (sp) the individual auctions. Theres a HUGE difference in terms!
     
  12. Daydreamer

    Daydreamer New Member

    sabotaging the individual auctions is not so bad (still on dodgy ground though), but as someone said before, I think ebay is removing the auctions themselfs.
     
  13. Kosh

    Kosh New Member

    Firstly ebay dont allow illegal transactions and the transactions werent illegal..

    Secondly, Geldof wanted people to shut down ebay...

    ..how much money is generated on ebay for charity??? who knows? Geldof?...nah lets just shut it down

    Thirdly...how do we know where the money was going from the sales?? it might have gone back to the charity.

    Forthly...bidding and not paying is an illegal activity, he did encourage that.

    Its one thing to encourage benign attacks against the users but ebay as a whole can't be held responsible for what a few out of millions of users do.

    Denial of service attacks would affect millions of users, just to hinder a few sellers of tickets...when they could have put a stipulation on the tickets to disallow resale.
     
  14. adouglasmhor

    adouglasmhor Not an Objectivist

    So when was the section on ticket touting for recognised Public events droped from the Criminal justice Act (England and Wales). There are legal restrictions on how much over the cost price you are allowed to resell tickets. Denial of service acts are criminal but so is touting. Biding and not paying is deceitfull,possibly unlawfull but not illegal. As for e-bay not allowing illegal transactions I have seen CS gas sprays on sale on e-bay and push daggers, they are not infalible at monitoring what goes on on the site.
     
  15. It's totally unethical, but at the end of the day, it's their ticket. If eBay ban the sales, they will lose out. Ebay take comission on all items sold, so on tickets at some of the prices I've seen mentioned, they are making a nice tidy sum.

    Why would they ban it and lose out on money unless it is illegal (which it isn't)? Nobody has actually done anything wrong except Geldoff (saying "Hack eBay"). He might not be a politician, but lets face it, us normal people have to constantly watch what they are saying.

    The kind of people who do this are no angels, but I'd rather they were selling tickets on eBay than doing a number of other "iffy" things.
     
  16. Kosh

    Kosh New Member

    Apparently the sales werent illegal according to bbc news. If it is illegal to sell tickets above the original costs...then surely its illegal to buy them??? like for $10 000 000...not to mention entering a contract to buy something and then refuse to pay, which is what geldof encouraged. The tickets were sold, the charity got the money...they did everything they are supposed to do. The people buying the tickets would seem more at fault.

    It may be unethical...but how do we know where the procedes went??
     
  17. Sgt_Major

    Sgt_Major Ex Global Mod Supporter

    The initial tickets werent sold, they were given away free....thats the whole point! ANY money made on them is 100% profit..... minus eBay fees and a txt msg originally
     

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