scarlet mist is no more

[karlpowell]

http://www.scarletmist.com/default.asp

16 September 2011

Scarlet Mist has gone offline. We have been forced to close the site because of the unacceptably high levels of fraud carried out by a small number of criminals. We are desperately sorry to let the rest of you down.

We have been looking at ways of bringing you a similar service with better levels of protection, but until we can manage this in a cost-effective way then we cannot continue to operate the site. We would be keen to hear from any individuals or organisations that would be interested in getting involved.

Scarlet Mist was set up in 2003 as a way of helping one of our friends to get a Glastonbury ticket. We have run the site as a free service because it represents something we believe in – that music fans should be able to trade spare tickets with one another without touts muscling in on the act.

The close ties between the primary ticket market and the secondary tout market have got closer and closer over the years. The ticket market is a bizarre and strange world, where opaque pricing structures, compulsory handling charges and non-transferable non-refundable sales are all regarded as entirely routine practice.

Ticket touting is a mixed blessing; there are many music fans that are willing to pay the prices that they charge. Successive governments have looked at the issue – and Scarlet Mist has given evidence to various working parties and reviews. We do not think it is practical to make touts illegal, but we do think that they should pay tax on their earnings. We have lobbied for this, and we believe that the websites that act as front-ends for high-earning touts should be required to share information with the tax inspectors.

We are immensely grateful to those of you who have supported us – in particular we would like to thank Neil Greenway from eFestivals, Dylan Baxendale from TicketSwitch, Robert Richards and John Scott from Glastonbury, Eddie St Clair from Auctionchex, Sam Shemtob, Jonathan Brown, Audience UK and all of the many journalists and bloggers who have supported us.

It has been a wonderful and rewarding experience to run Scarlet Mist, and we will miss you all.

Richard and Olly

feedback@scarletmist.com

[jump]

Isn't this the 3rd Scraletmist is dead thread?

[karlpowell]

OOOPs , had a bit of a scan through and could not see anything about it .