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What's up with you and your crusade against Zillow, OP?
As for that blog, I've forgotten all about it. I found it lame and not very funny. Let's see how much content she gets now that she can't rip photos from the MLS to critique.
My thoughts are this - Don't like a "McMansion" in the burbs? Don't buy one!
Zillow backs down and withdraws threat of Legal Action against McMansion Hell
So Zillow accepts the inevitable as it loses the PR war over the aggressive way it threatened McMansion Hell with legal action with its bungled Cease & Desist Letter on Monday. The EFF sent a strongly worded response to Zillow today and Zillow later issued a statement dropping the threat of legal action against Kate Wagner the 23 year old graduate student who publishes the McMansion Hell Blog. I am sure she has learned many 'life lessons' this week too!! Wagner has agreed to stop using Zillow photos going forward. Old posts using Zillow photos would remain online.
Here is Zillow response issued in response to EFF Letter
We have decided not to pursue any legal action against Kate Wagner and McMansion Hell. We’ve had a lot of conversations about this, including with attorneys from the EFF, whose advocacy and work we respect. EFF has stated that McMansion Hell won’t use photos from Zillow moving forward.
It was never our intent for McMansion Hell to shut down, or for this to appear as an attack on Kate’s freedom of expression. We acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our partners – the agents and brokers who entrust us to display photos of their clients’ homes.
It seems Zillow didn't have the stomach to risk losing any legal action with the strong rebuttal by EFF on behalf of Kate Wagner as well as the massive public outcry against it social media which was seriously damaging Zillows reputation. To some of us it case as no surprise and was business as usual for Zillow the way it bullied a 23 year old student without making no attempt to reach out to discuss any concerns Zillow had about her blog.
In Houston particularly the market for Mc mansions and larger houses is not that great due to the oil bust. Owners have hard time selling 500k+ properties. On top of that if you have someone making fun of their property and their interior design and in general other things related to TX, people are not going to take it easy. Esp the sellers of these Mcmansions are influential people with deep pockets.
Wow, maybe I should move to Houston. Where I live, McMansions start at $2 million, and $500K will get you a moderately nice condo.
It's up to the EFF-ing lawyers now, but my opinion is that Zillow does not put any restrictions upon viewing or copying the photos on their site, so they cannot enforce any terms of use. If they put up a terms of use page and required clicking on "I Accept" before showing any listings they would have a case, or they could prevent copying the photos off the page -- I've encountered the latter, although I don't know how it works.
The blog in question is sometimes amusing but the "serious architecture" part is ill-informed. Apparently there's still little taught about modern domestic architecture; they're still oohing and aahing over large public buildings, mostly built three centuries or more ago.
They're not even Zillow's pictures. They're taken from MLS listings.
From what I've studied (I am not an architect), her comments are spot on and if her advice were followed, we'd have much prettier McMansions and neighborhoods.
>they're still oohing and aahing over large public buildings, mostly built three centuries or more ago
As well they should be. Study the past; you might learn something.
So Zillow accepts the inevitable as it loses the PR war over the aggressive way it threatened McMansion Hell with legal action with its bungled Cease & Desist Letter on Monday. The EFF sent a strongly worded response to Zillow today and Zillow later issued a statement dropping the threat of legal action against Kate Wagner the 23 year old graduate student who publishes the McMansion Hell Blog. I am sure she has learned many 'life lessons' this week too!! Wagner has agreed to stop using Zillow photos going forward. Old posts using Zillow photos would remain online.
Here is Zillow response issued in response to EFF Letter
We have decided not to pursue any legal action against Kate Wagner and McMansion Hell. We’ve had a lot of conversations about this, including with attorneys from the EFF, whose advocacy and work we respect. EFF has stated that McMansion Hell won’t use photos from Zillow moving forward.
It was never our intent for McMansion Hell to shut down, or for this to appear as an attack on Kate’s freedom of expression. We acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our partners – the agents and brokers who entrust us to display photos of their clients’ homes.
It seems Zillow didn't have the stomach to risk losing any legal action with the strong rebuttal by EFF on behalf of Kate Wagner as well as the massive public outcry against it social media which was seriously damaging Zillows reputation. To some of us it case as no surprise and was business as usual for Zillow the way it bullied a 23 year old student without making no attempt to reach out to discuss any concerns Zillow had about her blog.
I think you have it backwards. They didnt pursue legal action because there was no reason to. The owner of the website will not use photos from Zillow from here on in. That was all that Zillow wanted.
What lawsuit would they pursue now? There isnt one. They won. As they should.
I think you have it backwards. They didnt pursue legal action because there was no reason to. The owner of the website will not use photos from Zillow from here on in. That was all that Zillow wanted.
What lawsuit would they pursue now? There isnt one. They won. As they should.
Exactly.
So many people have no clue about data licensing and rights...
Hopefully this episode will provide some insight and alert folks who think they are entitled to use anything they "find on the internet" for their own commercial purposes.
So has this blogger said what she is going to do now? Is she going to keep the blog going with her own pictures?
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Zillow backs down and withdraws threat of Legal Action against McMansion Hell
