If you’re a music lover who has tried buying concert tickets from Ticketmaster and Live Nation, you’ve probably noticed how ridiculously difficult it is to find good seats. Blame hackers like the “Wise Guys”, who were charged today with fraud, among other things. These hackers are behind the elaborate scheme to buy out the best seats and resell the tickets for more than face value. Today, three of the four self-titled “wise guys” appeared in Newark, New Jersey’s federal court. The hackers are responsible for breaking into the computer ticketing systems to buy millions of the best tickets for numerous artists like Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, and Billy Joel, among others.

The National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB), the non-profit trade association dedicated to protecting consumers and the secondary ticket market, today released the following statement applauding the action of the Office of Fair Trading, the antitrust enforcement agency in the UK, to block the Ticketmaster/LiveNation merger, and urging US officials to follow their lead.

Being fan friendly has been Pearl Jam’s strong suite since the early 90′s when Eddie Vedder made it a point to exploit and challenge Ticketmaster’s unfair monopolistic practices. Despite a valiant fight, fans only saved a few cents, but nobody seemed to mind spending hours waiting on the phone to buy tickets for the No Code tour.