dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

I found that Zillow is using copyrighted photos that I took of the house we had for sale. These photos were licensed to the realtor for the duration of his contract to sell the house or until the end of the month that the house sold. We closed on the house October 31, 2013. Zillow is still using the photos for that address. On last Saturday, (the day I discovered that they were using the photos) I sent them the following email.

Hello. I am the professional photographer who took the 779 Bluebell Road, Warminster Pa 18974 photographs that Zillow is currently using in their description of that address online:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/779-Bluebell-Rd-Warminster-PA-18974/9117138_zpid/
My additional copies of my original photographs are located here: You are illegally using 43 of my images.
http://www.almosthomephotography.com/re1.html

I don’t have a record of licensing this image to Zillow for commercial use. My regular fee that covers this sort of online marketing is $95 per image. I request that you either remove the 43 images from your various sites, or pay the license fee to continue using the image, or forward me any relevant paperwork showing that your company has legitimately licensed that image and I’m mistaken about this. If I don’t hear back from you within a week, I will issue takedown notices to your web hosts, and the images will be removed automatically. I will also seek legal action against Zillow for publishing images that they did not have legal license for. The licensing for these images was a limited license to the realtor for the duration of his contract, which ceased upon sale of the property.
I don’t mean to be harsh, but photography is how I make my living.
Thank you for your time,
David Campbell

So far all I have gotten was the following email:
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Any ideas? I have given them a week to respond but I am guessing that I will be ignored. All of the photos have been legally copyrighted. Should I get a lawyer or continue to push to have the photos removed from their site?

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

It's just me but, I would not care. What are they going to do, sell the pics?
Correct me if I'm wrong.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Well, if they hadn't taken the copyright off of the lower left of each photo, I would at least get credit for the images. To me, if you make exceptions like that then the next time you try to enforce your copyright, the other person can say, "well such and such did it and you didn't go after them, so you've set a precedence."

jkatpc Loc: Virginia Beach

I'm not a lawyer, but shouldn't you send legal notification via registered mail? At the very least, it may make it to a person who can act on it.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

Did the realtor company sell the photos or give up the rights to Zillow when they posted?

Are there T&C's with Zillow?
If yes, what do they say about the rights of the owners photographs.

If there are no hidden clauses - and you are 100% sure they are in violation, then I would suggest you take them to small claims court since it's less than $5,000.00. To hire a lawyer and pursue will probably cost you more than that - (unless you can find a lawyer that will take it on for free).

You can check with the courts on how to file and all the pertinent details...

All you have to lose is time...

skooters Loc: Flagstaff, Arizona

If they removed the copyright then they did this on purpose and I would see an attorney.

Bill Houghton Loc: New York area

In not sure but have read this before. Others that do deal with real-estate people would know better. Zillow I be leave is a multiple listing group for the internet. If the listing agent is part of that group, there is no breach of contract till 30 days have passed. Even if they do remove them after the 30 days for what ever reason.

How have you been hurt. You have been paid for the photos. If you look deeper in your contract with the listing agent you might find that they now hold the copyright for the terms of agreement and have the right to remove you copy protection as you call it.

A lawyer will properly want a few grand, as retainer and in the end your photo's will be off the site. Just a note, has the house has been sold or is it contract, two different things.

Make enough waves, and you might find you will very short on clients for you business.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Strangely enough, many real estate (and other) laws still use the term "First Class Mail" and that is not interpreted by some courts to be certified or registered. In one case several years ago, a tenant successfully argued, in an eviction case, that the certified notice he had received was not "First Class Mail"; the property owner had to start the eviction process all over again. Subsequent to that decision (in California, of course), our management group began, in addition to service of such notices by professional process servers, mailing two separate copies, one by ordinary first class mail, the other certified, thus complying with the law AND obtaining proof of service by mail. I always made sure that the postage receipts for both letters were on the same receipt tape and attached a copy of the letter and a copy of the company check I wrote to pay the postal fees. From then until my retirement, I never had a tenant argue that he/she had not received proper notice. I have not read the Copyright law thoroughly, but you have provided me with a reason to do some research. I will post my findings after I have waded through the statues and any references to case law. Thanks for the challenge.

By the way, I assume that, if the copyrights of your pictures were not registered when taken, they are now.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Those were registered before I provided them to the realtor and before he signed the contract for the licensing of the photos. He is the owner of his Prudential Real Estate Office so his signature should be binding.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

DC, not sure what you can do, if anything. Not sure why you even posted this.
Yes, you have plenty of rights and are plenty protected by the law. But in order to act on any of those rights, you will have to start throwing gobs of money at it, and it's your right to do that.
Personally, if those pics are worth a lot of money to you, by that I mean many thousands of dollars, and I dont see how real estate pics are worth anything to anybody once a property sells.
But if they are, then get out your checkbook and start beating them with it.
I just hope your pockets are deeper than theirs, whoever Zillow is?!
SS

Bill Houghton Loc: New York area

Zillow is an online database that realitors sign up with as a multi listing for great or exposure.

Just do a search on Zillow.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

Actually, under Federal law, once the 1 week of notice is up (and email to their support address, in this case counts since Zillow does not list a contact phone number or address) if I can find out who their ISP is, if they don't take the images off, I can have the FCC force the ISP to disconnect the website. All I have to do is provide proof of my registered copyrights and the dates. I just have to figure out who their ISP is. In addition, I can notify realtors and competitors of their inaction and make an example of them. If we don't enforce laws, then why do we have them? In this case, Federal Copyright and the money I spent registering the images had better work or I can always start in on the copyright employees too and their taking money to provide protection under the law then failing to enforce their own rules.

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

Overview for zillow.com
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davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

You are dealing with realtors. Nuff said!

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

If they obtained your photos though an agreement with the MLS authority and if you approved the photos to be listed by the Realtor belonging to the MLS authority and if Zillow is referring back to the Realtor, you may be just peeing in the wind.