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Takeaways:
- Whoever creates something owns its copyright.
- Only photos, listing descriptions and maybe the listing price are copyrightable.
- Fight over listing data may be a fight over its monetization and who gets to sell a house.
- There are pros and cons to open sourcing listing data.
SAN FRANCISCO — Prominent industry players had a few things to say about who owns real estate listings at Inman Connect today. Here’s a sampling:
About to live-tweet “The Coming Data War: Who Will Win Control of Real Estate Listings?” #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
The session will include Chris Heller, CEO of @kwri; Jonathan Bednarsh, prez of @Onboard_Info ; and @MitchellSkinner of Larson Skinner. — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@1000wattbrian (moderator): Who legally owns the data? @MitchellSkinner It depends. If you create something you own it. #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@MitchellSkinner: Photos and free-form descriptions are copyrightable. Maybe prices are copyrightable. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@MitchellSkinner: “There’s fractured ownership of listing content.” Unless MLS has taken steps, probably still fractured. #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
Chris Heller: KW take is that listing data belongs to the agent and the broker. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@jbednarsh: “Who cares [who owns the data]?”
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@hellersells: We have a fiduciary duty to a client to handle their transaction and their private info. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@hellersells: There needs to be some guidelines to how the game is played because otherwise there’s risk to consumers. #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@jbednarsh: I would love to see all IDX data essentially be open source. It could be tracked, managed. Let innovators innovate. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@1000wattbrian: The data issue is maybe a bit of a red herring. It’s a business issue: Who will sell that listing?
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@jbednarsh: Keeping data closed may not be good for the consumer who is ultimately writing the checks. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@hellersells: The Broker Public Portal and Upstream are two completely different initiatives and have different goals. #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@MitchellSkinner: Each MLS has a different position on how the data should be used. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@MitchellSkinner: If IDX data were open source, could “create a bunch of liability and get us all sued.” #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@1000wattbrian: Does not the homeowner ultimately own this data? And should they be given an opportunity to decide what happens to it? #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@jbednarsh: I just sold my house. The consumer I can’t imagine would ever vote to get caught up in ‘your data, my data’ #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@MitchellSkinner: The homeowner doesn’t own it, at least not the parts of the listing that are copyrightable. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@jbednarsh: As a seller, I never noticed anything about data in my listing agreement. #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
Cameron Paine (in audience): “Seems to me the heartburn is about the monetization of the data.” #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
Cameron Paine compares open source data to legalizing drugs: If everyone has the data, the bad guys go out of business. #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@MitchellSkinner: Boards set these rules. IDX is a quid pro quo system. Data cld be opened up, but you need to change the MLS rules. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@jbednarsh: I think the best opportunity is to have more choices besides @Zillow, i.e. Broker Public Portal.
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
@jbednarsh: Whomever is the biggest company now, I guarantee you they won’t be the biggest company in five years. Let that happen. #ICSF — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
Leslie in audience: That listing could represent 20 years of work by an agent. #ICSF
— Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
And that’s a wrap! pic.twitter.com/EAFaEMleDX — Andrea V. Brambila (@InmanAndrea) August 5, 2015
