Jackson memorial sale crackdown

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Fans will need to a ticket and wristband to enter the Staples Center

Efforts by those trying to sell tickets they won to the Michael Jackson memorial service are being thwarted.

Hours after lottery winners collected their passes, postings went up on Craigslist and eBay offering tickets to the highest bidder.

Some were offered for as much as $25,000 (£15,450) before being pulled or flagged by users.

"eBay will not allow Michael Jackson memorial service tickets to be listed on the site," eBay told the BBC.

"When found, eBay will remove them immediately. We believe it is inappropriate to allow the sale of tickets for the Michael Jackson memorial service," the e-mail concluded.

Some fans were so outraged by those cashing in on an event honouring the King of Pop that they bid up tickets to absurd sums like $100m (£62m) on eBay.

On Craigslist, similar advertisements were soon flagged by users for removal.

"Users very quickly flag off ads that are inappropriate, look fishy, or are miscategorised, and that is what we are seeing happening with regards to Michael Jackson," Craigslist spokesperson Susan MacTavish Best told BBC News.

"This is an example of community response in action," she said.

The majority of postings that remain on the site's Los Angeles page are ones from fans who did not win tickets in the lottery as well as some that decried the actions of sellers trying to make a fast buck.

"Thank you for trying to make money off of an icon's death," wrote one irate Craigslist user.

Another person warned "Trying to sell your MJ tickets? YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SELL THEM! It's illegal (Called scalping and punishable by imprisonment.)"

"Beneath contempt"

It has been estimated that 1.6 million people applied to the online lottery for tickets to attend the service at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.

It is expected that thousands without tickets will turn up at the event

The organisers AEG Live, which owns the Centre and had backed Jackson's London concerts, distributed 17,500 free tickets to the memorial via e-mail. The lucky ones had until 6pm last night to pick up their prized passes.

Each winner was given two tickets and while a special bracelet for the event was immediately placed on the ticketholders wrist, AEG spokesman Michael Roth confirmed they can give their second bracelet to anyone they like.

"Theoretically the second wristband can be sold," admitted Mr Roth.

"We are hopeful that they (the winners) have these vouchers because they are a fan and it's meaningful to them and they would also invite someone who it would also be very meaningful to them."

A Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine criticised those who would seek to make money out of the event.

"This is a memorial. Words can't describe how horrifying it is that people are ostensibly trying to do that. It's beneath contempt," said Mr Sunshine.

Streaming live

The tickets will admit 11,000 people to the Staples Centre plus 6,500 to the Nokia theatre overflow section next door.

The event is expected to be a test for the web

With a star studded line up that is said to include Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher and Brooke Shields scores of TV stations plan to stream the event live over the airwaves and the internet.

The world's biggest social networking site Facebook is teaming up with CNN while rival MySpace is taking its feed from AEG Live.

The service will also be shown on five main US television networks and the BBC is planning to stream it live in the United Kingdom. Plans to show the event outside the UK are being considered.

It is believed the service, which is scheduled to begin at 10am Pacific coast time, could be the biggest event in the web's history.

Certainly it will be a major test for the internet which slowed on the day Michael Jackson's death was announced. At one point Google News was so inundated by queries it thought it was under attack.

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