Pssst... wanna buy tickets to the Diana gig?

We're a little confused by eBay's statement as they attempted to block sales of tickets to see the Lovely Lovely Lady Diana Spencer Big Gig on their site:

A spokesman for eBay said: "In view of the unique and commemorative nature of the Concert for Diana event and as a mark of respect for the memory of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, eBay has decided to not allow the re-sale of tickets to this event on the site."

Eh? What sort of line is this? Back during the run-up to Glastonbury 2005, eBay pointed out there was nothing illegal about selling tickets online, and allowed auctions to go ahead. They did, however, put the cosh on Live8 tickets - presumably because that was "unique", like the Diana Concert is unique in, erm, exactly the same way.

Seriously, this gig isn't unique - it's a charity gig with a royal name attached, so on a par with the Princes Trust one or that thing where Brian May played on the roof of Buckingham Palace. And, well, yes, it might be commemorative, but then so were, say Diana memorial stamps, but eBay doesn't block sales of them.

What they mean, of course, is more "because, like eBay, people will kick up a stink over this one, we're trying our hardest to stop sales in a way that won't create a precedent."

Still, Arcade Fire were looking for a way to stop their tickets being sold by eBay - all they need to do is say the gig is in memory of, say, Peter Boyle and eBay will surely have no choice but to remove sales of entry to this "unique and commemorative event".

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