After filing a lawsuit against Zillow alleging widespread copyright infringement back in July, CoStar is now claiming that the listing giant has continued to display thousands of copyrighted photographs, despite attestations from the company that it was taking the images down.
The lawsuit, filed on July 30, alleged that Zillow infringed on at least 47,000 images owned by CoStar. Since that original filing, CoStar claims Zillow has displayed at least 4,618 additional infringed images—most of which feature CoStar’s watermark.
In a statement released Sept. 30, Andy Florance, CoStar Group’s founder and CEO, claimed that “despite being caught redhanded…Zillow has doubled down.”
“Zillow’s repeated copyright infringement, combined with its lead-diversion model that is the subject of a separate lawsuit accusing Zillow of deceiving homebuyers, exposes an ongoing pattern of morally questionable behavior,” said Florance. “Zillow’s free ride on the agents’ listings and CoStar Group’s proprietary content is over.”
But in a court filing shortly before CoStar came out with the new allegations, Zillow claimed the photos in question are uploaded by Zillow customers, who have to promise they have a legal right to license them to Zillow.
“This case is CoStar’s latest attempt to weaponize copyright litigation for competitive pressure, consistent with its history of filing suits against industry rivals,” the filing reads. “Zillow has an established policy allowing copyright owners to request takedown of materials in which they claim a copyright, consistent with the DMCA (copyright law). Rather than use this system, CoStar chose to shift the burden to the courts and file the instant suit without prior notice to Zillow.”
Zillow is also asking that the case be transferred, from the Southern District of New York where CoStar filed, to Seattle where Zillow is headquartered. CoStar is based in Virginia.
“CoStar presumably chose this forum to avoid unfavorable Ninth Circuit law, a tactic that should not be given weight,” Zillow wrote.
At the same time, though, CoStar claimed that as of right now, “almost 8,000” of the original 47,000 images identified in the lawsuit are still on Zillow’s site, and provided screenshots of dozens of photos stamped with the CoStar watermark. At least some of those photos were still visible on ZIllow’s website as of Tuesday.
Zillow previously described the process of taking down the photos as a “routine” step during the early stages of copyright litigation, and not an admission of any wrongdoing.
The lawsuit and public back-and-forth represents another high-profile spat in the so-called “portal wars.” CoStar has made no secret of its ambitions to supplant Zillow with its own company, Homes.com, as the leading residential real estate portal, and Florance has publicly lambasted the “Ziltor” (a portmanteau of Zillow and Realtor®.com) business model of selling leads.
The lawsuit does not explicitly accuse Zillow of stealing and adding the photos to its website, where most are used to advertise rentals. CoStar admitted that at least some of the photos were almost certainly uploaded by Zillow customers who had separately obtained the photos from CoStar, and previously declined to answer where it believed the photos came from.
CoStar also did not specify how the 4,618 additional images were added to Zillow’s platform since the lawsuit’s filing.
But CoStar claimed that Zillow was negligent in allowing the photos to remain up because it benefited financially from using them.
Through syndication agreements, the allegedly copyrighted photos are also prominently displayed on Redfin and Realtor.com®, as well as on Zillow affiliate websites including Trulia, HotPads and StreetEasy. Florence previously threatened legal action against other companies that host the CoStar photos as well.
“Zillow used our watermarked images, it profited, and—stunningly—it has kept doing it,” said CoStar Group’s General Counsel, Gene Boxer in a statement. “That’s deliberate
mass infringement. Zillow calls itself a tech company, yet supposedly it can’t spot images plainly marked with CoStar Group’s logo. That doesn’t pass the straight-face test.”
Representatives for Zillow did not respond to requests for comment.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned to RISMedia for updates.
