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Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

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Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#221

Post by leptons »

fooqux wrote: post #128
RScholar wrote: post #55

> Software developers are the wizards and shamans of the modern age. We ought to use our powers with the austerity and integrity such power implies. This is one of the most powerful truths underlying the world we currently inhabit. The sooner we can agree to behave accordingly, the better our prospects for ripping the reigns of society from the hands of those whose only animating principles are avarice and exploitati…

Programmers being analogous to wizards or martial artists made more sense back when one used to need to train years or decades to become one. With age comes wisdom. There has been a lot of good that came from making coding more accessible; I'm not trying to gatekeep. But I do think that this is one instance where the outcome is worse. The martial arts masters still unquestionably exist among us. It's just that they'r…

>Programmers being analogous to wizards or martial artists made more sense back when one used to need to train years or decades to become one.

You can be a shitty wizard with only one year of training, same goes for programmers.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#222

Post by Closi »

londons_explore wrote: post #31

Isn't this vulnerable to ticket 'selling' by simply sharing the username and password of the ticketmaster account? it's not like a ticketmaster account is 'worth' anything, so the seller can simply set up a new one for their next purchase.

Well you can transfer the ticket to someone else for free anyway, so not really an issue.

Or you can transfer it to another name and print it out - just the name on Ticketmaster's system has to match some ID you have in the print scenario.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#223

Post by reddalo »

padthai wrote: post #46
rareitem wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So items inside google/apple wallet don't need to be 'static'?

No, I have flight tickets autoupdate when there is a delay.

I've only seen the flight data change, not the code itself.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#224

Post by joquarky »

giaour wrote: post #156
lakerz16 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that a few extra people sneaking in on the same ticket (assuming this is even possible) is more like sharing your Netflix credentials than ripping Netflix content and having it be shareable with the entire world. You're also walking into a stadium/concert in plain view of security cameras, so the stakes and deniability are different as well.

Not a lawyer, but "subverting DRM" (even if it's trivial or really stupidly designed) can be a crime in and of itself in the US under the DMCA. There are a bunch of exceptions to this, so I have no idea if OP's work is actually illegal.

Security researchers are an exception, but the title of "security researcher" is undefined

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#225

Post by miki123211 »

jjmarr wrote: post #53
irjustin wrote: post #38

I agree with the bad implement but the opening complaining that "old way of printable tickets was great why change it" have so many problems. Scalpers are the problem that you have to accept. At the time of purchase, there's no way to tell the difference between a legit purchaser and a scalper or even someone who bought it and simply can't go and needs to resell. IDs, ticket limiters, CCs, etc, etc. All methods can b…

Buying something at a low price and selling it at a high price is arbitrage 101 and is free money. The "true solution" is to sell tickets at their actual market price instead of pretending that the face value of concert tickets isn't increasing due to a larger population and greater demand.

As far as I understand, this can't be done due to PR.

"evil scalpers are exploiting this poor artist by charging outrageous prices and preventing many fans from going" is a far better look than "evil artist is exploiting their poor fans by charging outrageous prices and preventing many fans from going."

To prevent scalping, you'd need a massive price increase, and very few artists are willing to be the first to do this.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#226

Post by somerandomqaguy »

superfrank wrote: post #64

> I remember a time when printable tickets were ubiquitous. One could print off tickets after buying them online or even (gasp) in-person, and bring these paper tickets to get entry into the event when you arrive I go to 1-2 concerts a month so I'm well aware of how scummy TM is, but the problem with PDF tickets is that people sell fakes or sell the same ticket multiple times. I know multiple people who've been scamm…

>So do the digital barcodes if you add them to your phones wallet.

??? Last I heard the adding the barcode to the phone's wallet did not work, or at least not reliably. Some older folks I know struggled with it, and I specifically help setup the ticket master app and download the barcode. They mentioned that the app eventually logged them off when they got on site and had to struggle with poor wifi. Eventually got it to work but IIRC it took several minutes before they had a stable enough connection for it.

Does it need an actually Google/Apple wallet or something setup?

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#227

Post by ssl-3 »

999900000999 wrote: post #165
digging wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ticketmaster ultimately provides a luxury. You don't need to see a concert I don't agree. Entertainment/recreation is a need. Music is an important part of the human experience, and seeing it live, with other fans, is really valuable to some people. And the fact is, the value a person places on the experience is totally orthogonal to their ability to use/afford Ticketmaster. And it's not just about Taylor Swift - e…

You can find a bar with a band playing. I suggest Kingston Mines if you're in the Chicago area. Ticketmaster doesn't own have a monopoly on music. You can vote with your wallet.

"Fed up with high prices and long lines and ticketing SNAFUs for big shows with your favorite artists?"

"Clearly, the best answer to this is to forget about all of the music you think you like. Just forget all about it."

"Instead, go to the bar and see a band. It doesn't matter if you like the music or not; after all, we know that every live music performance is exactly the same as any other!"

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#228

Post by ryandrake »

mattmaroon wrote: post #92
RScholar wrote: post #55

> Software developers are the wizards and shamans of the modern age. We ought to use our powers with the austerity and integrity such power implies. This is one of the most powerful truths underlying the world we currently inhabit. The sooner we can agree to behave accordingly, the better our prospects for ripping the reigns of society from the hands of those whose only animating principles are avarice and exploitati…

I still don't blame the developers, I blame government. It's not the job of rank and file workers to police companies. I wouldn't work for LN, but I'm not going to blame someone else for doing so. We've all gotta feed our families. (I realize there's a line somewhere, you wouldn't excuse a prison guard at Auschwitz the same way, but I can't get too worked up about a developer making a ticketing app even if I hate the…

"Developers are blameless" is a uniquely HN take, for obvious site demographic reasons.

I see a worthwhile product as a stool with at least three legs: Technical feasibility, business viability, and ethical acceptability. Take one leg away and the stool should fail. Yet, HN commenters endlessly discuss/debate the first two and largely ignore the third. I think we all have a duty to work on projects that are ethically sound (defining that is a whole other discussion). There are plenty of companies out there and plenty of products to work on--it's not like we have to pick an evil one in order to survive and "feed our families."

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#229

Post by miki123211 »

xp84 wrote: post #137
jjmarr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying something at a low price and selling it at a high price is arbitrage 101 and is free money. The "true solution" is to sell tickets at their actual market price instead of pretending that the face value of concert tickets isn't increasing due to a larger population and greater demand.

People will scream (including in this thread) that it’s “unfair” that ‘only the wealthy can afford them then’ but their beef is with scarcity and thus with reality. It’s always “unfair” to the 10,001st person who wants to attend the concert with 10,000 capacity. Today it’s a weird lottery with 6 different fan and credit-cardmember presales, which each sell out immediately, and the “backstop” at the end which is the a…

A dutch auction is really hard because different tickets have different prices, different people have different requirements about where they want to sit (a committed disabled fan may be willing to pay any price, but they can't do standing only) and there are many different price tiers.

A better idea is an airline-style dynamic pricing system that considers different variables, current demand, projected demand, type of seat etc. If it looks like the show is about to begin and there are still lots of tickets left unsold, be like Ryanair and sell them at a massive discount. If there are more people on your page than there are seats available, make the price go up until that changes.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#230

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

mattmaroon wrote: post #105
tqi wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People often buy tickets without knowing exactly which of their friends are going to attend with them. This is not true of airplane tickets.

One ID for the entire order would be fine. You can buy 4 tickets, and go into the concert with your 3 friends. It often works this way even with no ID involved, I buy two tickets, add them both to my wallet, scan them both when my GF and I go to the show. You COULD still scalp tickets if the person who bought them from you is going to walk in with you. But the scalper would have to eat the cost of one ticket to do it…

What if you need to arrive separately? Especially for a big event with tens of thousands of people, can be easier to meet up inside the venue on everyone’s timeline.
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