CNN reports that eBay bowed to the pressure of the community yesterday and withdrew all sales of Live 8 tickets.

Tickets were awarded on the basis of an sms lottery and started appearing in hours on eBay for 100’s of dollars. But good old Sir Bob, branded eBay as an electronic pimp and condemned the auctions as against the spirit of the event.

But that’s not all. On Sky News, he urged people to go on eBay and “mess up the system”:

“Everyone should go on and pretend they have got tickets for Live 8 … otherwise go on and bid ridiculous amounts of money for the tickets already on the site,” said the feisty Irish rocker.

His call didn’t go unheeded. Within minutes, bids for hundreds of dollars turned into millions and eBay was flooded with false auctions.

eBay had no choice but to back down quickly from their previous “there’s nothing illegal about selling them” to “we’ve listened to the eBay community”. They should have seen this one coming, I think, when Sir Bob first made his displeasure known.

But it proves that there’s nothing so powerful as a community that has decided to act in unison. Even mighty corporations and governments must bow down to its wishes. Community power has arrived, but we ain’t seen nothing yet.