A Scripps News investigation found federal and state authorities are failing to enforce anti-bot consumer laws.The lack of action helps explain why bots are still a scourge. They drive up prices of concerts and sporting events in minutes, affecting venues of all sizes.

West Hollywood

Few scalpers pay the price for illegal bot usage

Have shirts and hair Galore, Holly Smith wears celebrate. Taylor Swift, been a singer and disabled me. So I was Kind of teased mercilessly for it. I have all these memories coming back in the only be able to call me down by Taylor Swift during a pre-sale. This past November, that's when Ticketmaster send verified fans like her special invite codes offering Early Access to tickets. Holly waited on the overloaded site. For our, my heart was racing all the time. I was like, am I going to get tickets? She knew she was in line along with millions of other swifties as they're called, but what she didn't know was that an onslaught of so-called the computer box was rapidly vacuuming up the tickets to resell them in secondary markets typically at highly inflated prices, thousands of Swift fans were left empty-handed and outraged. A problem happening just about everywhere. You find live sporting events, and concerts few places know that better than music. Plenty of concerts, plenty of venues in a place, like Nashville and in cities across the country. But not always, plenty of tickets. Run still swooping off so many tickets. Just like I said, his Raticate them. The Taylor Swift ticket Fiasco came as little surprise to the people we met here including Meredith dimenna director of programming at Analog of small performance space in the Hutton Hotel, Joe definitely. The Taylor Swift thing was just an extreme example, but it's extremely pervasive. It wasn't supposed to still be pervasive in Nashville Music City. Tennessee has had an anti but law on the books since 2008 when I was the Tennessee attorney general, Jonathan tells us it's yet to solve the problem. Do you know how many prosecution's Tennessee has brought against scalpers for using Bots? I don't I'm not aware of any yet but it's certainly something we're interested in an hour and education. We didn't find any case of the law being used in Tennessee, prosecutions against pot makers have been rare in other states to why a 2021 investigative report from the state senate in New York home of Broadway offers some insight policing bought activity the report. Concludes does not seem to be a pressing priority or is difficult to accomplish and the widespread usage of but still remains largely unaddressed by law enforcement agencies that's even though but makers aren't really hiding. We discovered 11 responses to this old solicitation online Taking bids for someone who can create a bot for Ticketmaster. Not all computer, Bots are illegal, but reselling tickets obtain. My boss that bypass purchase limits is against the law. We learned that many of the people behind this illegal. Practice, our overseas a challenge for pursuing prosecution's part of it is, it's really resource-intensive. There are ways of setting up various proxies to make it very difficult to find out, who's doing about attacks. It's so difficult that prosecutors have focus on crimes that are easier to investigate. He's now launched a probe into whether a lack of competition in the live ticket event industry or some other hidden incentive is encouraging Ticketmaster to allow Bots. While we look for is situations where we can make a difference and where there's a problem that represent itself that we can use our tools to solve. And so this is one that's that's gotten away for awhile. It's gotten away from Washington to without objection to be Barsac became federal law in 2016. It gave new enforcement, power to State Attorneys General, and the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC tells us in the six years since the bus act became law. The agency has announced just one enforcement, kase3 scalpers in New York, busted in 2021 for using automated software to illegally. Buy tickets to Elton John and other popular events when asked about the lack of both cases on FTC spokesperson said, the agency does not comment on investigatory decisions, but we have taken down many illegal actors engaged in online Commerce, but but developers have long shown themselves, able to outsmart new security features. According to Steven, Glickman founder of the online ticket selling platform project admission. It's Wacom, right? As a new defense gets, put up. People find a way around it and we've yet to kind of find a ubiquitous solution. Do you think a company like Ticketmaster could be doing more? Or do you think that they're doing all they can? But at the end of the day scalpers are always one step ahead. I'm not in the building but in my experience Calpers always find a way then all of a sudden, one ticket to see, Taylor Swift popped up, she didn't look at the price, it'll cost this college student over $900. That's the really read about it, a lot of things and because of his ticket and I've had people look at me like how late I just saw the ticket and like you don't understand like Dad is helmets to Smith. Is now part of a lawsuit filed by Swift stands against Live Nation. It accuses Ticketmaster of allowing scalpers and bought access to the Taylor Swift ticks presale. Master nor Live Nation has responded to our questions about efforts to fight box. I want Ticketmaster to think about people like me next time. For people like me who just want to see Taylor Swift. A painful problem hurting millions of fans like Holly feeling the high cost of a ticket. Patrick characters with us tonight to break this down further. Patrick. I'm glad you're here because I've been seeing you around the office for like a month on this and asking you into coming out. I just wanted to know what happened. What can we do? So if you're here by Taylor Swift and if anyone can do it, it's hurt. Just say, you know what, I'm not using you Ticketmaster sell tickets on my website, my Instagram, whatever to avoid, the Bots, Well, what we learned it is that it is extremely difficult for an artist to say, no thanks to a company like Ticketmaster and here's why do I get a ticket and think, okay? This is my entry into a venue but it is so much more than that for an artist. They're also looking at a company like, Ticketmaster to do promotion to do advertising social media to figure out state and local taxes, and figure out how much a venue is going to get even tiny. Then you told us that it is just not practical for them to do ticketing themselves. Because so much goes into the mix. Those fees that we don't like to pay that are so annoying or actually so important because they're doing a lot of those things that artists and venues cannot do alone chance. So there's no easy alternative then cuz I'm thinking calling on the phone that was awful. I remember standing in line at the Jones store to get my Amy Grant tickets from Ticketmaster not fucking to do another option. I mean Yeah, you know a lot of people are talking about this, could there be like an Uber of ticketing could there be something that disrupts the industry? And if anybody can do it, if anybody can drive that disruption, why not Taylor Swift's? That's something that people are going to be looking at. But some of the people that work in the space, they already people are forgetting that. This happened and it is so convenient, just to fall back on old ways to fall back on the Giants, and the ticket masters. But it is something that people are talking about cruelly, finally disrupting this industry that has been affected by Bots for decades.

The specialized police unit that included the five Memphis officers charged with the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols was disbanded on Saturday, as more protests took place in U.S. cities a day after harrowing video of the attack was released. It followed a call from President Joe Biden to the Nichols family, offering his support.

Memphis

Memphis disbands elite unit linked to fatal beating

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has fired the Conservative Party chairman. It comes after an investigation into Nadhim Zahawi's tax affairs found he seriously breached ministerial rules when he was chancellor. Questions remain over whether Sunak should have known earlier about Zahawi’s tax dispute.

Downing Street

Top Conservative fired over tax scandal

Former U.S. President Donald Trump had his first formal 2024 election campaign trail events on Saturday with stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina. They were noticeably low-key affairs, in contrast to the loud and lively rallies with thousands of supporters that he often holds.

Columbia

'Bring back world peace': Trump launches campaign

A protester has been killed in Peru during confrontations between demonstrators and police. That takes number of those who have died during the unrest to 58, since former President Pedro Castillo was impeached and imprisoned early last month. Roads in the south have been blocked by protesters after mainly indigenous leaders called a national strike. Food and fuel are running out in the region.

Puno

Protester killed in remote Peru clashes

Serbian superstar defeated Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas for his 10th trophy in Melbourne, equalling Rafael Nadal's 22 Grand Slam titles.

Melbourne

Djokovic wins Australian Open title

One of the world's most expensive cities to live in - Hong Kong - is facing the highest rate of homelessness in a decade. Rising inflation has sent the cost of everything from food to rent soaring, compounding the problem. Experts and social workers blamed the pandemic partly for the sharp increase in street sleepers over the past two years, as people lost their jobs and income.

Tsim Sha Tsui

Hong Kong has a homeless problem

Ten civilians were killed in Ukraine, including three in Konstantynivka, as Russian artillery targeted homes. Ukraine's army says it has been exacting a heavy toll against Russian soldiers on the battlefield.

Kharkiv

Ukraine says Russia taking 'heavy losses'

Chanting 'no justice, no peace', protesters marched through Memphis following the release of Police footage showing the arrest of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died after five police officers beat him during a traffic stop earlier this month.

Protests break out after Police footage released

The first tennis grand slam of the year has been won by a Belarusian player, Aryna Sabalenka. But because of the invasion of Ukraine, she was not technically allowed to represent her country.

'Neutral' Sabalenka wins Australian Open 

Two people have been injured in a suspected shooting by a Palestinian gunman around Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday morning, in what a police spokesperson has described as a "terrorist attack." In response, Israel's military said it was boosting its forces in the occupied West Bank.

Jerusalem

Israel army deployed amid West Bank violence

After two years of being held online, the revered Sundance Film Festival has returned to showcase the best of independent cinema. A drama about a struggling single mother has taken the Grand Jury Prize.

Park City

COVID Latest

Sundance Film Festival returns after two years away

Protesters in Peru have isolated its southeastern city of Puerto Maldonado after three weeks of road blockades. They are demanding constitutional reform. Some vandalised the regional governor's house on Friday. 

Lima

Politicians targeted by Peru protesters

Ukraine has invited the IOC chief, Thomas Bach, to visit his country's frontline after the body indicated it does not want to bar athletes from the Paris 2024 games based on their nationality.

Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

Russian Sanctions

Zelenskyy slams IOC decision on Russia

A Palestinian boy, aged 13, shot and injured an Israeli man and his adult son in East Jerusalem. The boy was shot and disarmed by bystanders and taken to hospital in handcuffs.

Palestinian boy shoots two in Jerusalem

The city of Memphis has released harrowing video of the violent encounter between Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old man and the five police officers charged with his murder. The video shows what begins as a traffic stop turning into a manhunt, ending in a violent arrest that led to Nichols' death and the subsequent arrest of the officers involved.

Memphis murder arrest video released

Over a few hours under grey skies, dozens of combat planes and helicopters roar on and off the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Nimitz. The demonstration of U.S. military power in the hotly contested South China Sea has riled Beijing.

Riau Islands

U.S carrier group enters South China Sea

A San Francisco judge ordered the release of body camera footage showing the moment officers intervened when an alleged assailant attacked the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The footage was released alongside a surveillance video showing the alleged attacker smashing through a glass window to get into the couple's San Francisco home.

San Francisco

Footage shows attack on Pelosi's husband

A Palestinian gunman killed at least seven people and wounded three others after opening fire outside an East Jerusalem synagogue, according to Israeli authorities. Police said the shooter didn't have an organizational affiliation.

Palestinian gunman opens fire outside synagogue

The International Olympic Community has announced that Russian and Belarussian athletes could be allowed to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics under a 'neutral' banner, rather than a Russian or Belarussian flag.

Paris

'No anthem, no flag' for Russian Olympians

After nearly a year of war, prisoners have accumulated on both sides of the border and detention centres in Ukraine are filling with Russian soldiers. Now a TV crew has been given rare access to one of these camps in an undisclosed location, where detainees wait in hope of a prisoner swap to return to their homeland.

Rare access to Russian POW camp

U.S. prosecutors have charged three men with attempting to assassinate a prominent critic of Iran's government who was previously the target of a failed Tehran-backed kidnapping plot, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday.

Washington

Three charged over Iran-backed assassination plot

Novak Djokovic's father Srdjan said on Friday he would not attend his son's Australian Open semi-final and would instead "watch from home", after a video emerged showing him posing at Melbourne Park with fans holding Russian flags.

Djokovic's dad to skip Australian Open finals

The Paris Mayor says she would not 'stand in the way' of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics, prompting threats of a boycott by Ukraine. The warning came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it would 'explore a pathway' for athletes from the two countries to participate as neutrals.

Saint-Denis

Ukraine threatens to boycott Olympics

The announcement comes one day after the United States and Germany both announced they are sending battle tanks to Ukraine, the first stage of a coordinated effort by the West to provide dozens of the heavy weapons to help Kyiv as Russia's invasion enters its 12th month.

Canada, France pledge more tanks to Ukraine

Rockets were fired by Gaza militants overnight as tensions soared following an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank that killed nine Palestinians, including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman.

Rockets fired at Israel after deadly West Bank raid

Peru's President Dina Bolurate is facing growing pressure over her handling of anti-government protests. Trouble began in December when her predecessor was forced from office and imprisoned after trying to dissolve Congress. Protesters want Boluarte to step down.

As deadly protests continue, Peru’s government faces crisis

A World Health Organization committee is meeting on Friday to decide if the COVID-19 pandemic is still a global emergency. Several leading scientists say it may be too early for WHO to declare the end of the pandemic emergency phase. The United Kingdom started easing restrictions in 2021 but is still working to live with the virus. 

Geneva

WHO considers if COVID still an emergency

U.S. President Joe Biden hit out at what he called “MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives” on Thursday for threatening to destroy the economic progress his administration had made and refusing to lift the country’s debt ceiling. Biden called the GOP threat ‘mind-boggling’, during a speech in Virginia.

Richmond

Biden hits out at 'dangerous' Republicans

Five recently-fired Memphis police officers have been charged with murder in the death of Tyre Nichols, who died in hospital three days after a confrontation with officers at a traffic stop. Video of the alleged beating that ensued is due to be released later this week. The five officers have been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault and kidnapping.

Memphis Police officers charged with murder

Nine Palestinians have been killed during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin. The Israeli military says its troops went in to arrest Islamic Jihad militants planning major attacks.