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Zillow Drops Complaint Against Blogger After Backlash Over Copyright Claim (geekwire.com)
The blog "McMansion Hell" is back up and running days after Zillow threatened the site's creator, Kate Wagner, into taking it down. Zillow's decision to withdraw their complaint came soon after the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced it would defend Wagner pro bono. GeekWire reports: "We have decided not to pursue any legal action against Kate Wagner and McMansion Hell," a statement from the company said Thursday. "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."
The Zillow response came in the wake of the week's events and a strongly worded letter to Zillow general counsel Brad Owens on Thursday (PDF here). EFF staff attorney Daniel Nazer said, "Our client has no obligation to, and thus will not, comply with Zillow's demands. Zillow's legal threats are not supported and plainly seek to interfere with protected speech." EFF said McMansion Hell was relaunching and no posts would be deleted, but that "in the interests of compromise, and because Wagner no longer wishes to use Zillow's website, she will no longer source photographs from Zillow for her blog."
The Zillow response came in the wake of the week's events and a strongly worded letter to Zillow general counsel Brad Owens on Thursday (PDF here). EFF staff attorney Daniel Nazer said, "Our client has no obligation to, and thus will not, comply with Zillow's demands. Zillow's legal threats are not supported and plainly seek to interfere with protected speech." EFF said McMansion Hell was relaunching and no posts would be deleted, but that "in the interests of compromise, and because Wagner no longer wishes to use Zillow's website, she will no longer source photographs from Zillow for her blog."
So they were using their lawyers to threaten the blogger under the assumption that the blogger wouldn't be able to afford to defend themselves (possibly knowing they were legally wrong). Blogger gets free representation - and suddenly the who's right/wrong comes back into the equation and they withdraw (because they are good corporate citizens).
I don't give a fuck about their bullshit excuses. Zillow can go fuck itself. I will actively discourage people from using their site.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
what to do. That C&D had NO value for Zillow. Even if the blogger couldn't get help and just went away, what good would it have done? What value would there be in shutting down McMansion hell? NONE. It's not any kind of threat to Zillow. It doesn't infringe on their business any. It makes people who can't afford million dollar homes laugh at the kinda-silly architecture while wishing we could afford to live in a house that stupid.
And now? Zillow, corporate bully, backs down the moment the other side has a lawyer. Making Zillow look EVEN WORSE because it's clear they knew they had nothing to go on, and if they proceeded, they'd get curb-stomped by the EFF.
stupid, Stupid, STUPID. Zillow just pissed away the good will (or at least inattention) of who knows how many people, because either they don't keep their lawyers on a short enough leash, or some exec takes it personally when they get mocked.
Either way, Zillow - get your shit together!
A thousand pounds of wood moving at 300 feet per minute. Don't get in the way.
So, she copied the pictures from Zillow. I can't blame them for protecting their IP.
Except it's not "their IP". they just license the pictures from someone else. And even if they DID own the pictures, commentary, criticism, etc., is protected as Fair Use. Zillow is just another corporate bully.