Tuesday, June 27, 2017

"Zillow doesn’t even own the photos it threatened to sue a popular blogger over"

Verge:
Zillow caused a whirlwind of controversy yesterday by issuing a fiercely worded cease and desist letter to Kate Wagner, who operates the popular McMansion Hell Tumblr blog. The letter accused Wagner of copyright infringement and walked right up to the line of claiming that using Zillow’s real estate photos for architecture criticism is a crime. Really!

The letter scared Wagner into pulling the blog down entirely and asking Twitter for help.

...

But here’s the thing: Zillow doesn’t actually own the photos in question here. Seriously: I asked if Zillow owns the photos, and Zillow’s PR person Emily Heffter responded with “No, we don't own the photos.”