We liked to say #ThanksObama for a lot of things during the past eight years. But this time, some of his critics may actually thank him. At least, they will say it without being sarcastic.
The White House announced Thursday that President Barack Obama signed an act into law Thursday that makes ticket buying bots illegal. This technology has made it easy for ticket brokers to get into presales and other online events to buy up bulks of tickets to high demand events before the general public and jack up the prices.
Obama signed the “Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016” (a.k.a. the “BOTS Act”) on Wednesday. As described by the White House Press Secretary, the law “prohibits the circumvention of control measures used by Internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable consumer access to tickets for certain events.” Bots are used to bypass those measures by buying more than the maximum amount of tickets or skipping a waiting queue. Other unsuccessful measures to stop the bots include filling out CAPTCHAs and wasting time confirming you’re not a bot while scalpers have already scored your tickets.
The law will not only make the use of bots illegal, it will also make it illegal to resell tickets bought using a bot, reported Engadget. A person aware that a ticket was bought using a bot could also be liable for punishment.
This might be the best news we get out of the White House in the next four years (I kid, I kid). But seriously, this is big for a lot of music and sports fans. Bots have been the cause of a lot of angst and frustration over the years. We’ve all sat there refreshing our web pages trying to get tickets to that all-important concert. Meanwhile, ticket brokers are picking up tickets by the hundreds, and you end up having to buy them from the bots and paying twice the face value.
This is one thing we can’t be mad at 2016 for. Let’s hope 2017 doesn’t find a way to screw this new law up.
[Complex/Photo: White House]
