Online Opinion

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eBay 8

So, Bob Geldof has accused eBay and (some of) its sellers of profiteering because a few people were trying to sell unwanted Live 8 tickets through the web site, some for large sums of money. If that wasn't bad enough, this morning we're treated to the likes of Janet Street-Porter (a woman who once boasted on television about abusing beggars) calling on eBay to "show some responsibility". There's the faintest whiff of hypocrisy in the air here.

I may be alone in this, but Geldof's complaints seem somewhat hollow from a man who's idea of fund-raising is to target fourteen year-olds. I'm not going to the concert because, other than the reformed Pink Floyd, there is nothing much there for me. I'm too old. The line up is aimed at kids. Running it as a text lottery is aimed at kids. Stating that multiple entries increases your chance of winning is aimed at getting lots of money out of kids. This isn't charity or political protest - this is Big Brother capitalism.

The scenario is easy to see. Some poor sod in Manchester or Glasgow has just found out that his darling fourteen year-old has spent a couple of hundred pounds on text messages, and has won tickets that they can't possibly use. ("No, you aren't going to London on your own. No, I can't get the time off work to take you.") So he tries to sell the useless tickets to someone who might actually use them, only to run into the irrational ire of Saint Bob.

I suspect Geldof's main complaint is that this episode shows up the hollowness at the heart of Live 8. Far from being a massive charity or political event, it's a giant pop concert. The people who want to go care little for the G8 summit or raising money for Africa, and little wonder. Geldof and Ure might have good intentions, but they're woefully short of actual plans. Call on the papacy to push contraception for AIDS prevention and family planning? Silence. Taxes in developing countries to pay for additional aid to Africa? Not a word. Sales tax structured to make non-fair traded products twice the price of the fair traded equivalent? No response. Perhaps some of the millionaires on stage could donate a large chunk of their worth to Oxfam or Save The Children? Steady now...

Meanwhile on eBay, it isn't hard to find tickets for sale. Most of them, inevitably, are free. "Buy this blank CD for two grand, and I'll throw in an unwanted pair of Live 8 tickets absolutely free!" You have to love the Internet.

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