Ticketmaster Corp. v. Tickets.com, Inc.

The background of the case began in the mid-1990s when Ticketmaster, a leading ticketing company, entered into exclusive contracts with various venues and promoters to sell tickets to their events.

Ticketmaster Corp. v. Tickets.com, Inc. was a landmark case that took place in the United States in 2000. The case centered around the use of hyperlinks and framing technology by Tickets.com, a company that sold tickets to live events.

The background of the case began in the mid-1990s when Ticketmaster, a leading ticketing company, entered into exclusive contracts with various venues and promoters to sell tickets to their events. Ticketmaster would then charge a fee for each ticket sold, which helped the company generate significant revenue. In 1999, Tickets.com entered the market and began selling tickets to events in competition with Ticketmaster.

Tickets.com used a technique called "deep linking," which allowed customers to bypass Ticketmaster's website and go directly to the page where they could purchase tickets. This bypassing caused Ticketmaster to lose out on potential revenue, and they took legal action against Tickets.com, alleging copyright infringement and unfair competition.

In response, Tickets.com argued that deep linking was a common practice on the internet and was a legitimate way to provide access to publicly available information. They also claimed that Ticketmaster's exclusive contracts violated antitrust laws by restricting competition.

The case went to trial in 2000, and the court ruled in favor of Ticketmaster. The judge found that Tickets.com's deep linking technique did violate Ticketmaster's copyright by bypassing the company's home page and directly linking to ticket sales pages. The court also rejected Tickets.com's antitrust claim, stating that Ticketmaster's exclusive contracts were legal and did not constitute an antitrust violation.

The court's ruling had significant implications for the use of hyperlinks and framing technology on the internet. The ruling established that deep linking could be considered copyright infringement if it bypassed a website's homepage and linked directly to copyrighted content. The ruling also clarified that exclusive contracts in the ticketing industry were legal and did not violate antitrust laws.

The Ticketmaster v. Tickets.com case remains an important precedent in copyright and antitrust law. It continues to influence the way companies approach online marketing and e-commerce, particularly with regards to the use of hyperlinks and the enforcement of exclusive contracts. The case serves as a reminder that companies must be vigilant in protecting their intellectual property rights and carefully consider their competitive practices in the online marketplace.