Tue 17 Feb 2009
Real estate site gets sued for linking to the wrong website
Posted by Marlow Harris under Real Estate
[5] Comments
BlockShopper, a site which uses public records, Facebook and Linkedin to track down who’s buying and selling what, has been sued by a law firm for linking to its website.
The law firm didn’t say why it sued, but maybe they thought the posts compromised their lawyers’ privacy. Housing records are public documents, but the Web turns public into accessible, and the firm probably wasn’t thrilled about having its attorneys’ home purchases blabbed all over the web. Someone at BlockShopper must sit around all day and cross-check public records with names on social networking websites, because there seem to be a lot of photos of homebuyers and sellers sitting around the pool or posing in front of the Eiffel Tower.
The law firm demanded that BlockShopper remove the items and links. When BlockShopper refused, the firm sued the 15-staff startup for trademark infringement. Jones Day’s legal theory was that BlockShopper’s link would trick readers into thinking that Jones Day was affiliated with the real estate site. Which is ridiculous, of course. They were probably just trying to drive them out of business.
Faced with the prospect of big legal bills, BlockShopper decided to settle. On Tuesday, the real estate site said it agreed to change how it links to Jones Day. This could have had repercussions for all of us if it had acutally gone to trial, and it sounded like the law firm would have won.
5 Responses to “ Real estate site gets sued for linking to the wrong website ”
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I don’t believe this !! How can someone gets sued for blogging the info that is publicly available anyway ? I mean,where is free speech and all that spirit ? there are some good sites with ability to sell home free for homeowners which links to other websites that are also useful.But this will only scare those who are trying to help others.
I’m a Realtor and I sell real estate in Breckenridge, Colorado. I would have to say that what BlockShopper is doing is out of line and there is nothing I despise more than data scrapers who have no real knowledge of local markets undermining the rules and regulations imposed on realtors by the NAR. The display of sold property data is not allowed on agents’ websites and here we have a 3rd party who is using a loophole in the system to do such a thing. Also invading people’s privacy is rude and unnecessary. If you look closely at their website, they have a tab for agents, now this is where they are going to come to us and say: pay me money and I will list you here using the data you are not allowed to use.
I’m not defending the NAR, they are actually doing a horrible job keeping this industry clear from all the problems which information technologies have brought to the table.