{"id":47987,"date":"2026-03-27T20:20:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/costar-says-zillow-copyright-infringement-now-tops-53000-photos\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T20:20:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:20:01","slug":"costar-says-zillow-copyright-infringement-now-tops-53000-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/costar-says-zillow-copyright-infringement-now-tops-53000-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"CoStar says Zillow copyright infringement now tops 53,000 photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

CoStar Group<\/strong> is claiming that Zillow<\/strong>\u2019s alleged infringement upon copyrighted photos owned by CoStar has continued despite the ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit CoStar filed against Zillow last July.<\/p>\n

In an amended complaint filed on Friday, CoStar claims that Zillow has infringed on CoStar\u2019s copyright on more than 53,000 watermarked photos across Zillow and the platforms it syndicates rental listings to, including Redfin<\/strong> and Realtor.com<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally filed in late July,\u00a0 CoStar\u2019s lawsuit <\/a>accuses Zillow of \u201crampant\u201d copyright infringement of listing photos. The complaint claims that Zillow\u2019s<\/a> unauthorized use of CoStar<\/a> images amounts to one of the largest real estate<\/a> image infringement cases in history.<\/p>\n

In the initial complaint, CoStar claimed that Zillow had displayed nearly 47,000 CoStar-owned images on its website. As of late September 2025<\/a>, CoStar claimed that Zillow had continued to display nearly 8,000 of the specific images it identified in its initial legal complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the amended complaint, CoStar claims that Zillow\u2019s use of its photos is a deliberate part of the company\u2019s business strategy. According to the complaint, Zillow uses the photos in question to build listing pages for properties, including those not actively for rent, and to train its algorithms like the Zestimate. CoStar alleges that Zillow has made significant money off of CoStar\u2019s images by using them to entice property owners and managers to claim listings and pay for a variety of advertisements and services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In short, the amended complaint claims that Zillow built up its rental business by taking CoStar\u2019s photos without permission, using them to attract customers and make money, even after being warned and sued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSince CoStar Group filed this lawsuit in July 2025, Zillow\u2019s infringement has only gotten worse\u2014and increasingly brazen,\u201d Gene Boxer, CoStar\u2019s general counsel, wrote in an emailed statement. \u201cZillow infringed thousands of new CoStar copyrighted images after being sued, many plainly stamped with our watermark, bringing the total number of images at issue to more than 53,000. Even worse, after claiming to have removed the images CoStar specifically identified in its original complaint, Zillow turned around and re-published many of those very same photographs. Zillow has the tools to stop \u2014 it is simply choosing not to, hoping that its mass-infringement scheme will return a profit. We look forward to holding Zillow to account.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early September 2025, a Zillow spokesperson confirmed that the company had begun removing the photos <\/a>in question from its site, as the company said is standard procedure in a copyright lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zillow has not yet returned HousingWire\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CoStar Group is claiming that Zillow\u2019s alleged infringement upon copyrighted photos owned by CoStar has continued despite the ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit CoStar filed against Zillow last July. In an amended complaint filed on Friday, CoStar claims that Zillow has infringed on CoStar\u2019s copyright on more than 53,000 watermarked photos across Zillow and the platforms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}