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Photo Finish
CoStar says Zillow stole 46,000 listing photos—Zillow says, “We’ll crop this out later.”
Splits and Caps Daily: Action for Agents
September 5, 2025
📈 Market Move:
Picture Piracy
Zillow just started scrubbing thousands of photos off its site after CoStar dropped a $1B copyright lawsuit on them. The accusation? Zillow allegedly used 46,000 CoStar-owned listing images—sometimes with the watermark cropped out.
This isn’t just a slap-on-the-wrist situation. CoStar is framing it as “one of the biggest image theft cases in history”. If they win, Zillow could be out billions.
Why it matters: Real estate is turning into a proxy war between two giants—Zillow (king of eyeballs) vs. CoStar (king of listings/data). And now, every photo, watermark, and copyright notice just became ammo.
Zillow has until Sept. 30 to clap back in court. Until then, it’s basically a waiting game to see if this is just legal theater… or if Zillow just got caught with its hand in the photo jar.
🌟Quote of the Day:
“Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.” — Nikola Tesla
📊🤔 Agent Poll
Which tool would you never give up, even if someone tried to pry it from your CRM? |
🎉 Fun Fact of the Day:
Faux Pa(ri)s: 🛕 In China, developers once built a fake Paris with an Eiffel Tower replica. Spoiler: it’s now mostly a ghost town.
📚 Book Recommendation:
“Negotiation Genius” by Deepak Malhotra & Max Bazerman — Most agents think they’re “pretty good” at negotiating—until they realize they’re leaving thousands on the table every year. This book is like upgrading from street-ball to NBA coaching.
Malhotra and Bazerman don’t just give you fluffy tactics like “make eye contact” or “smile more.” They hand you the playbook for turning lopsided deals into win-wins, defusing hostile situations, and even using “impossible” deadlocks to your advantage.
Biggest takeaway: negotiation isn’t about having the loudest voice in the room, it’s about changing the game so the other side plays by your rules.
If you read this and actually apply it, you’ll stop asking yourself, “Did I leave money on the table?” and start asking, “How much extra did I just create out of thin air?”
Little by little, you’re building something big.
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