Law 3.0: Technology and Law in the Entertainment Industry – The Case of Ticket Touting

Abstract This article examines the evolution of the law’s attempts to regulate technological advancements in the entertainment industry in general, and the sale and resale of event tickets in particular. Drawing on the analytical framework developed by Roger Brownsword, where he identifies three stages in the evolution of the law’s regulation of technology, we begin by tracing the key legal interventions in the entertainment industry to demonstrate how there is an increasing dissonance between the development of new technologies and their effective regulation by the law. As a result of this dissonance, a more effective approach could be to use technological developments as a means of regulation, instead of being the subject of regulation. The article then moves on to evaluate how advances in ticketing technology can be used to regulate the unlawful resale of event tickets, known as ticket touting or ticket scalping. It concludes by arguing that although technological developments often shape legal and regulatory environments, law is only ever part of the answer, and that technology should be used as a way of regulating the resale of event tickets.