Ticketmaster hails anti-bot law

PAGING SKYNET: California Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed AB329, and if you're as big an assembly-bill geek as we are, you're all, like, "Sure, the anti-BOT bill, amending section 22500 of the Business and Professions Code." But in case you didn't already have a tattoo of the legislation, we'll note that it cracks down on software and other applications, known as BOTS, used by scalpers to grab mass quantities of tickets from online vendors the instant they go on sale. Ticketmaster, which has been on an anti-bot crusade for some time, hailed this development. "As the leader in the fight against BOTS, we applaud Governor Brown for signing into law an anti-BOT bill," reads a statement from the company. "This is an important step in combating nefarious scalping practices that are responsible for too many tickets ending up in the hands of scalpers. We will continue to innovate to bring products to the market that help fans buy real and authentic tickets from Ticketmaster first and not be subjected to scalpers that unfairly obtained the tickets through their use of BOTS." Meanwhile, the NSA is absolutely not using BOTS to read your email, although it totally could. (9/24a)