海角大神

Dean Levin still hasn鈥檛 gotten over the fact that he missed The Rolling Stone鈥檚 鈥�50 and Counting鈥� Tour here in May.

鈥淚 called Ticketmaster as soon as I heard,鈥� says the unemployed actor, standing in line at Starbucks here. 鈥淪old out.鈥�

He blames ticket-buying software designed to trick computers into believing that orders are coming from different buyers when they are actually coming from businesses that resell the tickets at other websites for more money.

A furor was set off in Washington in July when three concerts by Beyonc茅 sold out in 60 seconds.

Now, California is targeting the practice of using software to get around the security of ticket-selling websites. California鈥檚 AB 329 was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday and supporters say that the state鈥檚 population and cultural influence could give anti-scalping forces a significant boost.

鈥淲hen you have a huge population state like California say, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 want our customers cheated out of good seats,鈥� that sends the biggest message possible to the rest of the country that this will be stopped,鈥� says Michael Marion, president of Fans First, a national anti-scalping organization. Noting that many states 鈥� including Texas, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Tennessee 鈥� have been struggling with such legislation in recent years and others, he says, 鈥淭his will be a significant turning point in this drive.鈥�

A proposed law in the Texas Legislature died in committee earlier this year, but supporters are already gearing up for another try in 2015.

Some of the largest ticket-selling companies in America are delighted with the California law.

鈥淎s the leader in the fight against 'bots,' we applaud Governor Brown for signing into law an anti-bot bill. This is an important step in combating nefarious scalping practices that are responsible for too many tickets ending up in the hands of scalpers,鈥� said TicketMaster spokeswoman Jacqueline Peterson in a statement.

But some observers say they are not sure the law, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2014, will have a noticeable effect.

鈥淭here are so many reasons why the average ticket buyer can鈥檛 get the seats they want that it鈥檚 part of a much larger picture,鈥� says Dean Budnick, author of聽 鈥淭icket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped.鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 very easy to vilify professional scalpers and say they are using some untoward means to bypass security, but the fact of the matter is that the ticket inventories available to the general public are actually quite small.鈥�

He says the number of seats sold are frequently limited because of set-asides and presale offers linked to fan clubs or those seeking credit card deals offered by companies such as American Express and Citibank. He also says that demand for tickets now goes beyond local markets, with people across the country buying tickets and then reselling them online.

鈥淚t used to be that buying tickets was just a local thing where you went down to the arena and stood in line,鈥� says Mr. Budnick. 鈥淭hen Ticketmaster came along and you went and stood in line there. Then you waited in a telephone queue. But now, because of the Internet, anyone anywhere can buy a ticket to any event and then turn around and sell it online, There is so much more competition for tickets than anyone realizes.鈥�