Zillow to Pay $1.9 Million in Copyright Case

In 2014, Zillow made use of listing-agent pictures for a new area, Zillow Digs. The high-quality addresses ongoing photograph use soon after the copyright owner despatched a stop-and-desist letter.

SEATTLE – A federal judge this 7 days purchased Seattle-primarily based Zillow to pay out virtually $2 million as the consequence of a copyright infringement circumstance from an Illinois-primarily based images corporation.

The situation stems from Zillow’s 2014 use of visuals on a dwelling improvement portion of its site, acknowledged at the time as Zillow Digs. The website authorized property owners to selling price household renovations and integrated pictures taken by VHT, a true estate pictures corporation that licenses images of households for advertising functions.

In a selection Wednesday, U.S. District Decide James Robart located “Zillow’s infringement of 388 of VHT’s pictures ahead of July 10, 2014, was innocent, and that its infringement of 2,312 of VHT’s visuals just after July 10, 2014, was not harmless.”

VHT sent Zillow a stop-and-desist letter on July 10, 2014. Robart purchased overall damages of $1.93 million alongside with curiosity.

Zillow spokesperson Viet Shelton claimed Thursday, “We recognize the court’s ruling and believe that it to be an general favorable determination on the matter.”

In accordance to situation information, VHT contacted Zillow after viewing its images on the web-site and the two firms discussed a doable licensing agreement. Eventually, Zillow resolved to “go in yet another path,” and VHT later sent the stop-and-desist letter. Zillow removed the shots in 2016.

Zillow accesses photos by means of agreements with genuine estate brokers and listing companies and “reasonably believed” these companies experienced accredited the photographs and Zillow could submit them, according to Robart’s conclusion.

The case has wound its way by the courts because VHT sued in 2015. In 2017, a federal jury requested Zillow to fork out $8.3 million, but the court docket reversed a portion of that verdict and equally sides appealed. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals afterwards sided in part with Zillow and a part of the situation was returned to the lower court.

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