Bob Geldof Confused As To How The Internet, Free Markets Work
from the rock-on dept
I guess it should come as no surprise that someone from the "old school" music industry would be a bit confused about how this internet thing (and free markets!) works. Bob Geldof, is hard at work organizing the sequel to LiveAid, this time called Live 8, and part of the ticket distribution plan was to give away free tickets to various people via a text lottery. Those tickets have been given out and in what should surprise no one, they're now appearing on eBay. No big deal there, right? Wrong. According to Geldof, eBay is pure evil. While he's upset at the people selling the tickets, he's even more pissed off at eBay to the point of calling for a boycott of the service (yeah, that'll work...). Apparently, the fact that some of the winners of the tickets might want to be less impoverished themselves matters nothing when it comes to the principle of ending African poverty. Of course, since eBay is just a marketplace, it's hard to see how they're to blame -- but that won't stop Geldof: "What eBay are doing is profiteering on the backs of the impoverished." This from a guy who's main claim to fame over the past twenty years or so is his fight to "end poverty in Africa." It's a noble cause and all, but you could certainly claim that he's been using the cause to his own benefit as well. Meanwhile, eBay is actually going above and beyond what they need to do in promising to donate the proceeds of the sales to Live 8 (showing, er, that they're not actually "profiteering.") eBay also has a somewhat snarky response to Geldof's claims: "we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds." Apparently that's only angered Geldof more: "The people who are selling it are wretches. But far worse is the corporate culture which capitalizes on people's misery." Again, it doesn't seem like it's eBay who's actually "capitalizing" on this at all. Update: Looks like eBay wasn't that serious in its initial snarky comments and has now agreed to back down and block the sales of such tickets -- meaning they'll just move to other forums -- and that none of the proceeds will be donated. Update 2: Apparently Geldof's fans also went a little nuts on this one bidding up the eBay auctions to ridiculous amounts to make their sale impossible. Meanwhile, we're still trying to figure out exactly who's hurt in having these tickets resold?
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No Subject Given by eeyore on Jun 14th, 2005 @ 10:06am
Bob Geldorf can piss and moan all he wants to, just as long as I don't ever have to listen to "We Are The World" again.
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No Subject Given by John on Jun 14th, 2005 @ 10:47am
EBay prevents ticket sellers in certain areas from selling their tickets to local events at higher than face price. They do this to avoid abetting ticket scalpers and to avoid breaking anti-scalping laws.
They could do the same for the free Live 8 tickets.
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Geldof should support trade by Pete Austin on Jun 14th, 2005 @ 11:38am
"Tickets to the star-studded London show, which aims to pressure world leaders into fighting poverty, were given away to the winners of a text lottery. But they immediately started appearing on eBay for hundreds of pounds. "I am sick with this," Geldof said in a statement. "What eBay are doing is profiteering on the backs of the impoverished."
Reuters
Geldof is 100% wrong in this. Protectionism by rich countries keeps Africa poor and he should be attacking it unambiguously, not promoting an equivalent policy. (BTW protectionism by poor countries is a necessary evil).
"Protectionism in the world trading system is hampering the economic opportunities that African states need to promote their social and economic growth. If the Group of Eight (G8), was serious about helping African countries to develop their political, social and economic institutions, they could have signed on the total removal of protectionist policies"
Protectionism: Africa's Perennial Headache
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Geldof idiot by Tim Almond on Jun 14th, 2005 @ 3:50pm
Worst of all, he's actually going to reduce some money going to charity. About 3% of the sales would have gone to charity.
Having stopped ebay doing this, the sales will go on elsewhere, on private websites and the like. Geldof won't be able to mobilise a media campaign against one-man-band ticket sellers like he can against a giant like Ebay.
Anyone think these guys are going to hand over some commission to charity?
So, let's say 5,000 tickets get traded at £200 a throw, that's £30K of free money that African charities aren't going to get. Nice one Bob.
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Re: Geldof genius by Protect on Jun 14th, 2005 @ 5:12pm
Ah but look at the publicity value of him attacking ebay - it's shrewd. Live8 remains the talking point.
This time it is not about charity it is about justice!
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ummm.. by z0idberg on Jun 15th, 2005 @ 4:12am
what the hell did he think would happen when you give away* tickets in an limited auction to a once only event. As soon as this was announced it was obvious this was going to happen.
I suppose he got his way though after kicking up a stink at least the people selling them wont make quite as much money but they will still sell them so whats the difference?
*not really given away - it cost £1.50 or something to enter the draw
Actually - I would say a lot of people paid the fee and entered that lottery for the chance to sell the tickets on ebay to make a profit. So actually the possibility of selling the tickets at a profit actually _increased_ the amount of money the lottery raised. So all that he is doing by stopping the auctions is deny people that opportunity, but they have already paid to enter the raffle so what does he care....
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Why.... by Sean on Jun 15th, 2005 @ 4:46am
".... This from a guy who's main claim to fame over the past twenty years or so is his fight to "end poverty in Africa." It's a noble cause and all, but you could certainly claim that he's been using the cause to his own benefit as well. ..."
I give up.... the commentary on techdirt has become more negative and, dare I day, silly of late. Why would you try to mock and attack the character of a man who has done so much for others. Why try to introduce doubt on his character. Sure, he mightn't understand the internet and eBay, and like a level but why ridicule his huge contribution to the third world. Re-read the part I quoted above and ask yourself, why was this necessary in this article.
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Bob almost got right answer by chance.. by Rainblk on Jun 15th, 2005 @ 9:17am
Hmm, reading Techdirt is interesting. Seems thou, that the concert promoters could have made better use of the "ticket-sales-on-Ebay" opportunity by intentionally sending them to celebrities they know wouldn't be likely to attend in person. Allowing the public to bid on tickets destined for some big Hollywood or Rock Star would have probably brought in big bucks. It shouldn't have been that hard to get the Famous Folks to autograph the tickets personally, and donate the proceeds back to the Live8 cause.
That'll be ten dollars, please.
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Re: Why.... by Mike on Jun 15th, 2005 @ 9:19am
The point of that sentence was that it sometimes seems like he's done a lot more building up his own name than he's done in actually fighting poverty in Africa. His name is everywhere on this thing -- and so it seems odd for him to claim that others are "profiteering on the backs of the impoverished." As I said, it's a noble cause, and I'm glad he's doing it -- but too many of these star-backed causes with big concerts don't actually seemed aimed at helping the *real* issues in these nations at all -- but to make a lot of noise about it and send some money. That doesn't help the real issues that those nations face at all. Instead, it often seems like the people in those nations are being exploited just for the sake of "a cause."
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Re: No Subject Given by susan on Jun 17th, 2005 @ 12:00pm
How could they do this if the tickets are free? new math?
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Re: Bob almost got right answer by chance.. by baffled by ignorance on Jun 17th, 2005 @ 12:03pm
you're an idiot!
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Re: Why.... by baffled by ignorance on Jun 17th, 2005 @ 12:04pm
You too are an idiot!
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No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward on Jul 4th, 2005 @ 8:21am
America Online (Quote, Chart) is spreading the musical wealth to a chorus of outlets and online partners that will take part in the Live 8 concert on July 2. Live 8 concerts will take place on Saturday in Philadelphia, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome, all in the name of poverty relief...
While the concerts -- expected to draw a broadcast audience of up to two billion people -- focus on poverty, businesses are seeing a potential cash cow.
Rockin' in the Fee World
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