CoStar sues Zillow for alleged copyright infringement

CoStar Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) filed a lawsuit in New York federal court alleging that Zillow has published more than 46,000 of CoStar's copyrighted photographs without permission on its website and partner sites.

The commercial real estate information company claims Zillow displayed the images more than 250,000 times on Zillow.com alone, with many photographs bearing CoStar's watermark. CoStar states the alleged infringement extends to Redfin and Realtor.com through Zillow's partnerships that make it the sole provider of multifamily listings on all three platforms.

CoStar reports it employs thousands of photographers and copyrights over two million real estate photos annually. The company has invested billions of dollars building what it describes as the world's largest library of real estate photographs over several decades.

"Zillow's theft of tens of thousands of CoStar Group's copyrighted photographs is nothing short of outrageous," said Andy Florance, CoStar's founder and CEO. "Zillow is profiting from decades of CoStar Group work and the billions of dollars we have invested."

The lawsuit references a previous case where Zillow paid millions of dollars after a jury found the company liable for copyright infringement claims brought by real estate photography studio VHT Inc.

CoStar indicates it may pursue legal action against Redfin and Realtor.com if they do not remove the allegedly infringing images. The company characterizes this as potentially one of the largest image infringement cases in history based on the volume of photographs involved.

The information is based on a press release statement from CoStar Group.

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