The day has come and you are ready to finally put your house on the market. You contact a realtor, they snap a few pictures of your house, and post it for sale online. It\u2019s that simple, right? Well, not quite.<\/p>\n
For the past several years, there\u2019s been an ongoing debate about the pictures that realtors take of homes for sale regarding true ownership of those images. Some claim the photos belong to the homeowners, others place ownership on the realtor, some on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and many others in between.<\/p>\n
The American Genius<\/a> has hashed out these issues several times, with evaluations of various MLS Terms of Service<\/a>, syndicated sites, and even a class action lawsuit<\/a> but the issue persists. Who truly owns the photographs?<\/p>\n Copyright ownership over the photographs has become convoluted, as many entities stake claim on the photos, each coming with its own special circumstances.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a breakdown of the issue:<\/em><\/p>\n – Many assume ownership of the photos resides with the homeowner<\/strong>, as it is their property being photographed, advertised, and ultimately, sold.<\/p>\n – Then argument is made that the photos instead belong to the photographer<\/strong>, unless released with a full or limited license. Some photographers may have more detailed restrictions, or acceptable usage policies, which complicates things further when real estate photos are posted on Multiple Listing Sites (MLS)<\/strong> and syndicated sites<\/strong> such as Zillow or Trulia, or on blogs that produce \u201creal estate porn<\/strong>.\u201d While MLS Terms of Service often outline a transfer of ownership upon image upload, syndicated sites seem avoid the conversation altogether, and assume the right to use the photos, further adding to bigger real estate syndication<\/a><\/p>\n – From the other side of the table it\u2019s being argued that if the listing agent<\/strong> purchased the photographs from a professional photographer, or took them personally, they indeed belong to her. Or even higher, the broker<\/strong> of the listing agent claims ultimate ownership since responsibility and liability of the photographs and the listing is ultimately theirs.<\/p>\n Why does this debate even matter? It\u2019s just pictures of houses, right? Well, when those photos are generating revenue, everyone wants a piece of the pie. And in fact, various entities claim rights to the images, complicating the issue endlessly.<\/p>\n