Comments on: MLS Restricts Copyrighted Images

By: David

David — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:06:53 +0000

Laws and rules are so important and lawyers get paid so much, but for all their training and all the money they make lawyers cannot seem to be able to learn to write clearly. There ought to be a law….

Patrick is right. It is in the interest of lawyers to write badly since that guarantees they will always have work.

By: Perryville MO Real Estate

Perryville MO Real Estate — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:58:31 +0000

It seems like they were trying to protect themselve, but didn’t have all the information they needed. This is a case were we as professional photographers need to work with an MLS board to establish policy that allow for the use of photos and protects our rights. I also believe that real estate photographers as a group need to address how tightly they control the use of thier images.

By: Glenda Cherry

Glenda Cherry — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:05:35 +0000

“Accordingly, NWMLS must remove all copyrighted photograph(s) from the database and the listing member may be subject to disciplinary actions.”

Um, don’t all images have an implicit copyright unless they’re specifically released to public domain? I see where they’re trying to go with this … but they missed their target.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:34:49 +0000

Plain english is not in lawyers vocabulary. They put in big words and such technical language that you need a thesaurus, a degree in astrophysics and a lawyers decoder ring to decipher what they mean. I guess that’s why they get paid the big bucks, so you have to have them interpret their documents for you.

By: James

James — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:56:35 +0000

Ian, the branding of virtual tours is a conflict of interest with the broker-reciprocity policy which helps agents offer other agents and brokerage’s listings on their web sites. For example…if a prudential agent is sitting in his office with a buyer and shows a listing that belongs to a Century 21 agent, the Century 21 agent info is removed to help the prudential agent. It is beneficial to agents.

The same rule applies in NY

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:06:26 +0000

I too have mixed feelings about this new rule. What a way to scare realtors!

By: Ian Haseltine -Real Estate Photography

Ian Haseltine -Real Estate Photography — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:55:28 +0000

Wow, that is going to cause a lot of people some very big headaches. A few years ago Chicago MLS forced the branding of virtual tours to be removed. It resulted in us reprocessing thousands of tours. You have to love the MLS’s commitment to making rules as they go.