Legal Research

Is Use of Computers for Ticket-Buying Criminal?

By John Gregory

Internet Law News today reports on the arrest of four people in the US for fraud and unauthorized access to computers — at least I think that?s what?s going on. Here?s the story:

Four Men Charged In Computerized Online Ticket Scam
Four men accused of using a network of computers and automated software to buy up online tickets to concerts and sporting events and selling them at a profit were indicted on fraud, conspiracy, and computer hacking charges, federal prosecutors said on Monday. They allegedly made more than $25 million by re-selling more than 1.5 million of the “most coveted tickets.? [CNET]

The accused figured out a way to create a computer network or networks, some or all based in Bulgaria, that dialled in massively when tickets would go on sale and enter the Captcha code that is supposed to defeat automated buying. So they bought hundreds or more of the best tickets to a large number of concerts and sporting events, and of course resold them at a large profit.

Is it fraud to violate the terms of service of the ticket sellers (usually but not always Ticketmaster) that would limit the number of tickets per buyer? Is that kind of purchase unauthorized access to a computer? Otherwise what have they done that is illegal?

The story is not clear — and I have not read the indictment, which no doubt I should? — whether the computer networks were created voluntarily rather than by malware. I am not sure how a botnet could defeat Captchas; that?s why one would want to recruit real people. If they created networks by malware, presumably the creation itself may be an offence in the places where it happened — if the law applicable in those places prohibited it — but not necessarily where those networks produce their effects.

Or am I wrong about that? Is it an offence here to create malware that affects only computers somewhere else, if the effect of those computers is to have an impact here? Or must the Canadian impact itself be illegal for the creation of the malware to be illegal?

P.S. The men are not charged with reselling tickets for a profit, since that is not illegal in most of the US (or in most of Canada, where only Ontario and Manitoba prohibit it).

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on March 02, 2010 (boomark / email).