This weekend at Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con every attendee badge contains a unique RFID chip. Newsarama reports in “The way you attend Comic Cons is changing right freakin now” that attendees will be required to tap in and tap out when entering or exiting the building.
…Fensterman said Reed is also interested in “cutting down on badge sharing, gate crashing and counterfeit badges. Not only does this tick us off, it’s totally unfair to the people who bought tickets. Why should they be overcrowded by cheaters?”
New York Comic Con also gave attendees incentives such as free digital comics to link their badges with their social media accounts. But Comic Con abused that access by sending promotional tweets in their names without permission. According to Polygon —
Within hours of the show opening its doors, members of the press, professionals and attendees discovered that their Twitter accounts were automatically sending out messages praising the show. Among those whose accounts tweeted without their knowledge were my own, IGN’s Greg Miller, Ain’t It Cool News’ Harry Knowles, Attract Mode’s Matt Hawkins and, according to Twitter, hundreds of others.
The pre-written tweets — more than 500 of them — were sent out on accounts shortly after the doors opened. They included the phrases “So much pop culture to digest! Can’t. handle. the. awesome. #NYCC,” “I can’t get enough #NYCC!” and “So much to see, so much to do! #NYCC 2013 I love you!”
The tweets always included the NYCC hashtag and a link to the show’s Facebook page.
But somewhere the sun is shining, the band is playing, hearts are light, and cosplayers are posing for photos out of Big Brother’s sight – click this link for Today’s coverage of the 2013 New York Comic Con and 51 great photos of cosplayers.
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Not to stretch a point but the New York ComicCon has been breaking not just ethics but the law since its second year. The aisles in the main dealers room are so crowded that they are impassable. A logjam every few feet. Its supremely hazardous and clearly violating all state and city firelaws In the old days, particularly in city owned buildings, all sorts of people could be greased and bribed but there was a limit to how far the public would be put at risk. Reed, the promoter, should probably sell 20!000 less tickets but of course that would mean a hit of half a million to a million bucks. You have to wonder how theyve been able to create these dangers for several cons.
And people complained about the plastic armbrands and badge-frames at MidAmeriCon.
I wonder if under New York law each attendee has a cause of action for fraudulent use of their names? A big expensive-to-defend class action suit would prevent such abusive behavior from happening again, I would hope.