Oct 18, 2007 6:34 pm US/Central
State Gov't Looking Into Hannah Montana Tickets
ST. PAUL (WCCO) ―
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The Hannah Montana controversy comes just 10 weeks after Minnesota legalized ticket scalping.
CBS
Hannah Montana's show at the Target Center this Sunday could likely be the most anticipated concert of the year in Minnesota, which may explain why her performance spurred debate at the state capitol Thursday.
Her show on the Disney Channel is a runaway hit and her concerts across the country have consistently sold out, so why will most Minnesota fans only get to see her Minneapolis concert in bite-sized chunks on YouTube?
Attorney General Lori Swanson is among those asking exactly that question, delving into a cyber-ticket controversy.
The tickets from the Target Center sold out in a matter of minutes, and it was then to alternate Internet venues that parents had to turn to score tickets -- at fantastically inflated prices.
"You don't want to get into a situation -- whether it is Shakespeare plays and 'King Lear' or Bruce Springsteen or Hannah Montana -- that tickets to these popular events are only available to the wealthy, that ordinary fans can't participate," said Swanson.
Ticket re-sellers using newly developed software apparently moved to the front of the cyber-line, buying most of the Hannah Montana tickets around the country.
Rep. Joe Atkins, chairman of Minnesota House Commerce committee, is now proposing a law to regulate or ban the practice.
"You've got all these little kids that are getting aced out by essentially the 21st century version of the bully cutting in line to take up all the good tickets so that legitimate buyers can't get them," he said.
The Hannah Montana controversy comes just 10 weeks after Minnesota legalized ticket scalping, but Rep. Phyllis Kahn, the author of the new scalping law, believes it is not to blame for this particular phenomenon and doubts any new law can regulate Internet ticket sales.
"For all the things we are asking government to do, the ability to buy a ticket to hear some -- however talented she might be -- little girl sing is one of the least critical problems I think we need government to take a stand on," said Kahn.
Swanson disagreed, saying she sees a direct connection between the Aug. 1 debut of the scalping law and what she and others sense as a sudden rash of higher ticket prices.
She said she is looking into the possibility that the state legislature could rescind the law and make scalping in Minnesota illegal again.
The Hannah Montana controversy is reverberating around the nation. The four attorneys general in Connecticut, Alaska, Missouri and Pennsylvania are investigating whether consumer laws were broken.
In California, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction stopping the software that allows cyber-ticket buying <em>en masse</em>.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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