Zillow Only Kinda Backs Down From Dubious McMansion Hell Threats Following EFF's Engagement

from the it's-like-zillow-for-sorry dept

The saga of Zillow's totally bullshit legal threat has lasted all of three days. Following a terrible (and still wrong) attempt at damage control, Zillow has sent a note to all the reporters who have covered the story to say that it won't be taking legal action:

We have decided not to pursue any legal action against Kate Wagner and McMansion Hell. We’ve had a lot of conversations about this, including with attorneys from the EFF, whose advocacy and work we respect. EFF has stated that McMansion Hell won’t use photos from Zillow moving forward.

It was never our intent for McMansion Hell to shut down, or for this to appear as an attack on Kate’s freedom of expression. We acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our partners – the agents and brokers who entrust us to display photos of their clients’ homes.

Even this response is bullshit. Note, first of all, there still isn't any apology there. Second, notice that they're still prattling on about how the action was justified and are also happy that McMansion Hell won't be using images from Zillow, even though the site and its founder, Kate Wagner absolutely could do so if doing so meets the standards of fair use (which all of the examples I've seen on the site so far almost certainly do). Third, "decided not to pursue legal action against Kate Wagner." Well, no fucking duh. This is because any lawyer with an ounce of knowledge on these topics has already explained that you have no actual legal claim here at all. Fourth, this was not done "out of an abundance of caution" or "to protect" your partners. It appears to have been done in a fit of anxious cluelessness, in a manner that made Zillow look terrible and petty -- not to mention clueless on the law.

Still, good on EFF for getting involved and helping out. EFF has a blog post about this issue and has posted the incredibly thorough debunking letter it sent Zillow, explaining how Zillow has literally no legal leg to stand on. And it also makes quite clear that Wagner has every right to continue to use images from Zillow -- but that she is choosing not to do so going forward (it's a little unclear if she intends to replace older images sourced from Zillow).

Either way, Zillow still comes out of this looking like shit. The fact that it never apologized and still seems to think that the legal notice was the right thing to do (not to mention that it's still focused on whether or not Wagner will make use of these images) suggests that Zillow has not even remotely learned a lesson here. This does not speak well of Zillow as a company.

Filed Under: cfaa, copyright, fair use, kate wagner, mcmansions, streisand effect, threats
Companies: eff, mcmansion hell, zillow

DailyDirt: Small Houses For Fun & Profit

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Another era of building McMansions probably won't be coming again anytime soon. Big houses built quickly and somewhat cheaply aren't in much demand nowadays. But there are a few designers who are working on really small houses (that could almost fit in a McMansion closet). Here are just a few examples of some extremely tiny living spaces that look nicer than you might expect.

• If you think you can live in a ~100 square foot house, you can build your own tiny little house -- and some nice floorplans are available for about $1 per square foot. These houses may not be as modular as a shipping container house, but they look more like regular houses -- slightly smaller. [url]
• Frank Lloyd Wright once designed a very, very small house... and he provided the design for free to a kid who asked nicely for a doghouse to go along with a summerhome that Wright also designed. The original doghouse was destroyed, but the doghouse has been re-created for a documentary. [url]
• A popup camper that can fit in a shopping cart doesn't look very comfortable, but it's a lot better than a cardboard box. The artist that designed this humble abode was planning for a "worst case" scenario of living on the streets -- during a zombie apocalypse? [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: architecture, camping, doghouse, frank lloyd wright, houses, mcmansions