Miley Cyrus
A software company is the latest corporate victim of a parental-outrage vendetta over sold-out concerts by teen performer Miley Cyrus, also called Hannah Montana.
Several state attorneys-general have launched probes and suits against concert-ticket dealers in the secondary market, accusing them of fueling inflated prices for hard-to-get tickets for the young star.
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, himself the father of a pre-teen fan, got the ball rolling last month by announcing a probe into possible scalping by ticket brokers. McDaniel said many of the tickets for Cyrus's December concert at Alltel Arena went to "as yet unidentified bulk purchasers."
Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon followed up early this month by announcing he was filing lawsuits against three Internet-based ticket re-sellers. Nixon claimed the three - GoTickets, TicketsNow and Ticket Solutions - were violating state consumer protection laws against ticket scalping.
Now a Los Angeles federal court has slapped an injunction on Pittsburgh, PA-based RMG Technologies against creating or distributing software aimed at primary seller TicketMaster's Web site, the company announced Oct. 15. The program allows brokers to "cut in line" for TicketMaster's in-demand tickets.
TcketMaster General Counsel Ed Weiss called the injunction "the first step" in a campaign against on-line ticket resellers.
"Anyone using these programs and any company supplying them should know that we and the entire live entertainment industry will not stand for it," Weiss stated