REALTORS are great at sharing ideas.
I really do like the idea of team spirit and sharing. I think that one can make a strong case for it in business among friends who trust and respect each other. It is what a scenius is all about. It is what we do at our brokerage with what we call our Roundtable. It is a good thing.
But that is TOTALLY different from intellectual property theft. One of the things that I watch REALTORS do time after time is to “help themselves” to other peoples’ intellectual property (or have their hired folks do it) and then fight arrogantly when they are informed about it. Most times it starts as an innocent thing where the REALTOR is unaware of it and ends with the REALTOR losing significant time and money.
Two examples:
Take the latest controversy about a REALTOR named David Bigham. I was not aware of it until my buddy Jon posted on it on our real estate newspaper site. This, sadly enough, has happened literally hundreds of times while I have watched. It is TOTALLY avoidable.
David Bigham is (apparently) a REALTOR somewhere in Minnesota. I neither know him or care. I simply want to help folks avoid his plight for THEIR business.
Here is how it typically starts.
1) REALTOR buys a domain.
2) REALTOR is a visual person, so they find a competitors site that LOOKS cool.
3) They contact the firm that built it and ask “How much?”
4) They faint. Lotsa bucks.
5) They start contacting EVERY web developer from their cousin Fred to the local web development students to every serious firm looking for a person to “make it look EXACTLY like that.” (Famous Last Words…)
6) So Fred or Betty or whoever (insert web developer here) literally copies and pastes the code which is EASILY done and makes a few simple modifications and posts the site as “theirs”, lock stock and barrel.
Then the trouble starts. See, the guys who designed that site…they ummmm…. OWN that design. Yes it may be fashionable for REALTORS to “steal” (or “pinch” “boost” “hi-grade” “lift” etc-grin),,, advertising and other stuff, but when a web company or a cousin Fred does this to a website, it is Intellectual Property theft. Plain and simple.
Here’s the bad part…guess who is on the hook and liable for this? That’s right, it is the owner of the domain. Even if they are unaware that what they did was wrong OR even if they paid cousin Fred $1,000 bucks with the instructions to make it look just like XYZ site and were unaware that Fred was going to use the Xerox machine to make $1,000. (Caveat -specifics matter in this and I have used generalities to cover a TON of potential issues…if you have a specific question, PLEASE see an IP attorney)
Example 2
Photos used in websites.
They need to be of your creation or royalty free or you need to have WRITTEN permission to use them. Same reason as above. I have watched people get in trouble with this one and end up having to pay hundreds of dollars to avoid litigation.
Google images is NOT a royalty free site. (Seriously)
I know this post may have come across as “preachy”. It was not intended to. I am simply tired of seeing REALTORS get caught in the same issues as David Bigham and I care.
It is better to avoid these issues even if it costs a few bits more up front. It truly is worth it.
Dane Werk says:
What is also bad is when somebody just copies someone else’s story. They might take the time to change a word here and there but it is a problem I am seeing in my city with another REALTOR. This person is a friend and I have mentioned it to them and I am going see if it continues.
October 19, 2009 — 7:59 am
Robert Worthington says:
Eric, as an REW Client, I was offended that Mr. Bigham copied Morgans website. Good post of how not to copy a website. Its just not worth it.
October 19, 2009 — 9:54 am
Sam Chapman says:
Eric – you are so fight about this. I have seen some of my photos on other agent websites and blogs and have asked them to be removed. There is no respect and a huge ignorance about intellectual property rights.
October 19, 2009 — 12:33 pm
Joe says:
Hmm, so I guess I cannot copy/paste this blog entry to my own blog Eric and call it my own? [grins}
October 19, 2009 — 5:15 pm
Eric says:
I think one thing is using other people’s content and another is acting as if it’s your own. Isn’t it pretty reasonable to capture content as long as you acknowledge where it comes from, such as long excerpts from blog posts?
Good to know that Google images is not royalty free. I never thought about that.
October 19, 2009 — 8:37 pm
Elad Kehat says:
Here’s a tip for finding photos you can commercially:
Go to flickr advanced search – http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/
Then scroll to the bottom and check “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” and “Find content to use commercially”.
October 20, 2009 — 12:32 am
James Boyer says:
Good Story Eric, I have personally taken all the pictures on my site. Over the past few years I have had to make a number of calls to get my pictures take down from other peoples sites. What is my reward, usually some office broker who knows nothing about how the Internet works or the IDX agreements their company has signed calling me to complain about advertising their listings. What a pain in the butt.
October 22, 2009 — 4:28 pm