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He would be in a heap of trouble in these here parts.
He's gonna be in a heap of trouble here. I just spoke with the MLS, and they can't do anything about it because no mls violation occurred.
However, I was advised to make a police report to protect my client and myself in the event of some spam, and to contact the legal hotline. So those are the starting places. By removing my name and placing his contact info he has stolen my copyrighted photos and my description, so he may get hit with that also.
Notifying Craigs List will be the last function. And it isn't just my listing. By searching Craigs List by his name, I found there is a very large number of listings he has stolen.
He's gonna be in a heap of trouble here. I just spoke with the MLS, and they can't do anything about it because no mls violation occurred.
However, I was advised to make a police report to protect my client and myself in the event of some spam, and to contact the legal hotline. So those are the starting places. By removing my name and placing his contact info he has stolen my copyrighted photos and my description, so he may get hit with that also.
Notifying Craigs List will be the last function. And it isn't just my listing. By searching Craigs List by his name, I found there is a very large number of listings he has stolen.
What you need to know about copyright is that there are a couple of different kinds. The statutory damages for infringement are $750 per instance to $30k per instance BUT for willful infringement, which is when a competitor takes your stuff to compete with you, it goes up to $150,000 per instance. So if they took 4 photos that is $600,000 worth (potentially) of statutory damages
No attorney worth their beans will have you move forward in a copyright case without your images being registered at the Copyright Office. I've done the copyright lawsuit and learned a lot when I sued.
You wouldn't have gotten any of these "leads" because you don't advertise on cl. In the end, this is just free marketing that benefits you and your seller, just like idx.
please keep us posted on how this plays out. i'm guessing you won't actually go through with it based on cost, time and trouble... but hope you do so that others can learn the outcome.
idx may complicate this since you have essentially given them permission to advertise your properties...
please keep us posted on how this plays out. i'm guessing you won't actually go through with it based on cost, time and trouble... but hope you do so that others can learn the outcome.
idx may complicate this since you have essentially given them permission to advertise your properties...
IDX does not complicate it. If you think it does, then you don't understand what IDX is. I am the owner of my brokerage. I do not give agents that ability to snag my listings by agreeing to IDX. If you think you can, please talk to the owner of the brokerage to clarify things.
You wouldn't have gotten any of these "leads" because you don't advertise on cl. In the end, this is just free marketing that benefits you and your seller, just like idx.
But I do advertising my listings on Craigs List. It damages me because he has removed my name and is funneling all the leads to himself.
It is not like the IDX. The IDX must identify the listing broker.
You wouldn't have gotten any of these "leads" because you don't advertise on cl. In the end, this is just free marketing that benefits you and your seller, just like idx.
The problem is that some sellers don't want to be on CL. The scams are so prevalent out here that all my sellers, when I talk to them about CL, have opted to not have their homes placed on there. So if an agent hijacks a listing and puts it on CL, then they are violating my clients instructions.
please keep us posted on how this plays out. i'm guessing you won't actually go through with it based on cost, time and trouble... but hope you do so that others can learn the outcome.
idx may complicate this since you have essentially given them permission to advertise your properties...
I am in the process of going through with it. The enormity of what this guy is doing is staggering.
IDX is completely different. With IDX we give permission for other agents to pull our listings from the MLS which shows who the listing broker is.
This is where an agent has taken our listings, removed our name, and replaced it with his name, phone number, and web site url.
When we opt into IDX we do not give permission to remove our contact information.
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