Senate Bill S4032

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S4032

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the arts and cultural affairs law, in relation to
automated ticket purchasing software


 PURPOSE OF THE BILL :
The bill will prevent the use of automated ticket purchasing software
that bypass security measures to purchase large quantities of tickets,
thereby reducing the number of tickets available on first offering to
the public.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :
Section 1 of the bill amends the arts and cultural law by adding a new
section 23.25. Section 1 of the bill defines the term "automated
ticket purchasing software". Paragraph 2 of the bill establishes
utilizing automated ticket purchasing software shall be guilty of a
class A misdemeanor. Paragraph 3 of the bill establishes that a person
who supervises the operation of automated ticket purchasing software
shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. paragraph 4 of the bill
establishes any person who possesses automated ticket purchasing
software shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor. Paragraph 5 of the
bill establishes that any person that sells and/or exchanges in any
manner, tickets purchased with automated ticket purchasing software
within New York state shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
              

Paragraph 6 provides that for each violation of the provisions of this
section shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousand
dollars or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed one year, or
both.

 JUSTIFICATION :
In 2007 the Legislature passed a bill that was signed into law, which
eliminated a prohibition on the resale of tickets at more than the
premium face value. This has resulted in a proliferation of businesses
and individuals that buy up large quantities of tickets at face value
and resell them in a secondary market for a profit. These businesses
and individuals use an automated device or computer software to
navigate the primary website and buy up large quantities of tickets.
This results in less tickets being available to the general public at
the face-value price. Ticket websites such as "Ticketmaster" have
attempted to avoid this practice by instituting security measures that
attempt to thwart the automated software. These security measures
include verification software such as "CAPTCHA" which uses a series of
letters and numbers that are visually distorted in order to
authenticate that the purchase is made by a human. Unfortunately, as
with most fraudulent activities, they have been successful in staying
"one-step" ahead of the ticket companies and have developed more
intelligent software and devices. In fact, "Ticketmaster" has recently
been involved in a lawsuit against "RMG Technologies" which sells
software t hat allows ticket brokers to gain fast buying access to the
"Ticketmaster" website.  This bill would make it illegal to use any
software or device that seeks to bypass security measures in order to
purchase large quantities of tickets for re-sale. This will result in
more tickets being available to the public at the price intended by
the vendor.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
New Bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE :
None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become law.