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Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

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Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#311

Post by orangecat »

GuB-42 wrote: post #298

Does anyone knows how Ticketmaster works, really? I have been to Ticketmaster events that use reasonably priced, printable tickets, you could even buy a printed ticket with cash. In fact, even though there are so many Ticketmaster events, they are not all working the same way. And Ticketmaster doesn't have the monopoly on shitty practices, the article gives a good example in the beginning. What I suspect is that Tick…

I'd even go as far as calling Ticketmaster "Evil as a Service".

Correct, except rather than "evil" it's "market-clearing pricing". Of course many people see no distinction there.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#312

Post by lnxg33k1 »

omega3 wrote: post #168
chuckadams wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still print the ticket on paper. Tho nowadays that means a trip to a FedEx store for me, since I refuse to keep buying inkjets I only use a couple times a year.

Laser printers have solved this - I don’t expect to change the toner for a decade.

I bought a laser printer, I think something around 19 years ago, and it broke before I could finish the toner

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#313

Post by jyrkesh »

divbzero wrote: post #61
frizlab wrote: post #23

How about the “Add to Apple Wallet” option? He did not talk about that at all , but AFAIK the ticket would be fully available offline and not in Ticketmaster app, no? It’s actually an elegant solution IMHO.

Yes, it is available offline if you “Add to Apple Wallet”. The ticket in Apple Wallet is still revocable if you transfer the ticket to someone else using Ticketmaster’s website, probably through an update that Ticketmaster pushes to the wallet [1]. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Us...

Just recently dealt with this for a big Ticketmaster event. The Apple ID has to match the email address on the Ticketmaster account, or the ticket will show as Void in the Apple Wallet.

But it does solve the offline issue that the blog author was experiencing.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#314

Post by dylan604 »

ryandrake wrote: post #231
mattmaroon wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We wouldn't. You might expect that on an indivudual level. But at a society level, I would expect any company that's doing things that are specifically allowed by our goverment (who did approve the Ticketmaster Live Nation Merger) to get their jobs filled just like any other. I think Ticketmaster is evil, another developer might not. That's fine, they're not killing people or dumping toxic chemicals into reservoirs,…

Ultimately developers type the code in and hit "deploy." They have to share at least a fraction of the blame and accept at least a fraction of the outrage. Without them, the product wouldn't exist. There's a lot of blame to be spread around though. The developers themselves, their management chain all the way up to the decision makers, shareholders that demand ever increasing profits, governments who provide the lega…

It's nice to think that might be true, but there are always plenty more devs willing to work on anything for a paycheck than there are devs with strict morals. There's a lot of egos, but at the end of the day, no matter who you are, you are not irreplaceable.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#315

Post by LeonM »

Let's face it, the real problem with ticket sales is scalping. OP may not like Ticketmaster, and doesn't want to install the app, but the majority of fans don't have a problem with that. The real problem for most fans are the scalpers who push prices out of their budget.

Of course we all like to dream up all sorts of technical crypto solutions to this, preferably decentralized to remove evil Ticketmaster from the equation. But I don't think the ticket scalping problem is a technical problem per se. I believe it is because tickets are currently sold under the wrong terms, which encourages scalping.

A possible solution could be to make tickets non-transferable, but always refundable. So only you (the buyer of the ticket) can use it, but you can't resell it. But if you decide not to go, you should be able to refund the ticket to the ticket office for full price. The ticket can then be sold again to someone else, for the same price.

Now, of course this is a naive idea. There are many practical and technical challenges to it, not to mention the politics of the entertainment industry. I'm not too familiar with the event industry, so I'm not sure if this would even align all the incentives, but it would benefit the fans and the performers who care about their fans.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#316

Post by mlyle »

LeonM wrote: post #315

Let's face it, the real problem with ticket sales is scalping. OP may not like Ticketmaster, and doesn't want to install the app, but the majority of fans don't have a problem with that. The real problem for most fans are the scalpers who push prices out of their budget. Of course we all like to dream up all sorts of technical crypto solutions to this, preferably decentralized to remove evil Ticketmaster from the equ…

The problem is scalping.

Unfortunately, this "solution" is Ticketmaster cementing their control of the ticket marketplace and spying on their users.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#317

Post by bagels »

Zopieux wrote: post #275
bagels wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This improves the security over airline tickets. There was a recent story of someone taking pictures of other people's boarding passes, and using that to board the plane. With this ticketmaster scheme, unless the person has access to the secret keys, the pass would only be valid for a few seconds, likely defeating this attack against boarding passes. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/texas-man-board...

How often has this been a problem though? How about not keeping your boarding pass, or ticket, or credit card for that matter, visible for the world? Just put it in your wallet, I don't know. This is security FUD. Stop solving problems that do not exist to the point where it makes the news when they do happen, once a century. This DRM scheme concretely creates millions of small annoyances to millions of people and wa…

It also happens that pranksters can cancel your travel if your boarding passes make it on to Twitter or other social media. It's not a non-problem like you make it out to be.

Sure, it won't happen to you or me, because we know it is a risk to expose these documents, but that is not true of most people.

Maybe the DRM is not worth it. I actually think it's obnoxious for concert tickets (I recently had to deal with this system, and I was not thrilled about installing an app from a company that I think is using unfair business practices).

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#318

Post by jmb99 »

itishappy wrote: post #190
lilyball wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flying requires an ID. Attending a concert should not. Any solution that is solved by "simple, just require an ID" is not a solution.

> Flying requires an ID. Attending a concert should not. Why though? Not disagreeing per say because I'd have thought so too, but upon reflection... I assume the main reason airlines require an ID is safety and security. We maintain a denied parties list and use identity verification to make it as difficult as possible to fly a plane into a crowded venue. Border control is another issue, but there's plenty of intra-c…

Is your argument that people should be unable to attend concerts/etc without presenting ID? I for one am not a fan of that idea

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#319

Post by IncreasePosts »

ssl-3 wrote: post #245
IncreasePosts wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but realistically no one is going to get a fake ID with a certain name on it so they can go to a concert with that person's tickets.

The problem isn't scams. The problem is that Americans are not required to have an ID -- at all. No federal law requires it, and there is none issued by default. (This is not the same as saying "Americans don't have to carry an ID" even though that is also true.)

Americans aren't required to have an ID, but that is only relevant to government related services. Private businesses like concert venues are within their rights to card you in some manner, and refuse admittance if you don't provide ID.

Re: Reverse engineering Ticketmaster's rotating barcodes

#320

Post by axus »

Decker87 wrote: post #304
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #269

I am sure this is pointed out elsewhere, but ticketmasters business model is based on lying to the public so that the artists and venues don’t have to. Taylor Swift is a nice-ish person and wants her fans to think they can buy tickets for her shows at about 25 bucks because that’s a lot of money for a 12 year old and she does not want to alienate her fans. Her manager is an evil cackling bastard and wants to get as m…

Taylor Swift's manager is a woman. And an artist like TS is going to know exactly how it works behind the scenes

If Britney Spears's book is to be believed, the talent can be kept in the dark.
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