After a 15-month legal tussle, a federal judge ruled in CoStar Group's favor this week, issuing an injunction against Apartment Hunters for the illegal use of CoStar listings and photos.
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The Dana Point, Calif., online apartment marketplace was found liable for misappropriating listings and infringing photographs found on CoStar's Apartments.com. As a result, Apartment Hunters was ordered to pay CoStar $10K for each stolen listing and infringed image, and to also pay $10K per day, per photograph for any future copyright infringements.
CoStar founder and CEO Andrew Florance described the decision as a huge win for his company and said the fines will discourage companies from misusing content in the future.
Apartment Hunters said brokers were responsible for uploading the listings and photos and its role in the matter was unintentional. But the judge found the company liable and ordered it to use third-party monitoring software to ensure future infringements do not happen.
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