Ticketmaster ordered to pay $10 Million after hacking rival Crowdsurge.

[Musubi]

Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, have agreed to pay out $10 million dollars to a competitor after admitting to hiring a former employee to hack into the rival company's computer network.

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"Ticketmaster employees repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor's computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence," acting US attorney Seth DuCharme said in the statement. "Further, Ticketmaster's employees brazenly held a division-wide 'summit' at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company's computers."

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The hacking plot was first reported in 2017, shortly after CrowdSurge filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation. At some point prior to that filing, Live Nation had apparently recruited an employee named Stephen Mead, whom the company had poached from CrowdSurge in 2013, to turn on his former employer, offering data analytics and insider secrets to top executives in an attempt to hobble the competitor.

In a statement to The Verge, a Ticketmaster spokesperson said that the company was satisfied with the terms of the settlement, and stressed that both Mead and Zeeshan Zaidi — Ticketmaster's former general manager of artist services — had both been terminated as a result of an investigation into the wrongdoing.

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Fucking wild shit. https://gizmodo.com/ticketmaster-to-pay-10-million-after-illegally-hacking-1845971010

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

only 10 million for illegally hacking lmao ok

 

[krazen]

only 10 million for illegally hacking lmao ok

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Yeah, im like, they might have paid that much on the black market for that data...so what's the point

 

[KarmaCow]

In a statement to The Verge, a Ticketmaster spokesperson said that the company was satisfied with the terms of the settlement, and stressed that both Mead and Zeeshan Zaidi — Ticketmaster's former general manager of artist services — had both been terminated as a result of an investigation into the wrongdoing.

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Of course, 10 million is a slap on the wrist and likely made orders of magnitude more from the info they stole.

 

[HotHamBoy]

only 10 million for illegally hacking lmao ok

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My first thought

 

[AntoneM]

10 million isn't much, but it really fucks them right now due to almost no ticket sales (relatively speaking) for a year.

 

[Adventureracing]

Crime is ok if you're committing it for a government or corporation. No individual has been punished here as usual.

 

[smurfx]

this is freaking nothing. the government needs to fine them an additional 100mil at the very least for this shit.

 

[dallow_bg]

10 million is cheap, but it's the service/convenience fee that will get them.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (LYV) Market Cap 15.915B

Fine is: 0.06% of the company's value.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

10 million is like the fees for one ticket at a Beyoncé concert

 

[construct]

modern day mafia

 

[Rookhelm]

And now the convenience fees will increase by $3

 

[Tagyhag]

Individual hackers have gotten jail time for less. It must be nice to be a corporation.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

Why is the fine so low? This is insane.
You shouldn't be allowed to operate when you hack the competition.

 

[Doc Laserstein]

Fuck, that's barely sofa cushion money to TM. What a joke.

 

[Slayven]

Shit if they knew the price before hand they would have done it more

 

[AnotherNils]

In what world are the employees involved in hacking not subject to criminal charges?

 

[krae_man]

The US government let Ticketmaster and Live Nation merge. Like they will actually punish anti competitive behavior.

 

[Human Resources]

why couldn't rona kill off this shit company

 

[wenis]

I haven't missed paying Ticketmaster fees this year at all. Too bad they didn't sink.

 

[grand]

Ticketmaster Pays $10 Million Criminal Fine for Intrusions into Competitor’s Computer Systems

Earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn, Ticketmaster L.L.C. (Ticketmaster or the Company) agreed to pay a $10 million fine to resolve charges that it repeatedly accessed without authorization the computer systems of a competitor. The fine is part of a deferred prosecution agreement that...

www.justice.gov

The conspirator pled guilty in a separate case so there's still criminal charges being pressed against the individuals. Also this is a deferred judgment agreement, not a regular court verdict. If Ticketmaster violates any part of the agreement, then they'll get the far more serious charges.

 

[Don Dada]

Ticketmaster / live nation already paid like a $100m settlement before to songkick / crowdsurge.

Ticketmaster / Live Nation already own songkick and crowdsurge's ticketing business.

Ticketmaster / livenation sucks.

 

[krae_man]

why couldn't rona kill off this shit company

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They have a near monopoly. This is a minor blip to them. It's the ushers, bartenders, performers, venues... That are all suffering.

 

[bytesized]

One of the worst companies out there. I stopped going to most concerts that had them as the only option to get tickets because of that.

 

[TheMadTitan]

They have a near monopoly. This is a minor blip to them. It's the ushers, bartenders, performers, venues... That are all suffering.

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Not all venues; they own a bunch of them.

 

[krae_man]

Not all venues; they own a bunch of them.

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Owning and having the venue management contract are not the same thing.

But yeah they have their toe in every piece of the pie.

Venues, promotion, ticketing. They do everything.

 

[nihilence]

Was that an inconvenience charge?

 

[Snake Eater]

Huh? Caught doing something illegal and getting a slap on the wrist?

 

[Mechaplum]

Fuck this company rightly.

 

[ThatCrazyGuy]

Wtf is this slap on the wrist.

 

[killerrin]

10 million is fucking nothing. They should be forced to pay to their rival 10m plus double whatever it cost them to hire the hacker. Then they should be forced to email out to customers whom they stole the data for that they stole their data. And they should be forced to tell the rest of their customers what occurred.

Only that would be a fair sentence.