"An overall favorable decision": Zillow Ordered to Pay $1.9M in Copyright Infringement Case

A federal judge has ordered Zillow to pay damages of $1.9 million to an Illinois-based photography company.

The leading real estate portal was found to have infringed copyright laws by using photos from VHT Photography in its home improvement section Zillow Digs back in 2014.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge James Robart found that:

“Zillow’s infringement of 388 of VHT’s images before July 10, 2014 was innocent, and that its infringement of 2,312 of VHT’s images after July 10, 2014 was not innocent.”

VHT had contacted Zillow in 2014 about the use of its images to which the Seattle-based company responded by trying to come to an agreement about licensing the images. VHT declined and subsequently sent a cease and desist letter which was only acted on in 2016 when Zillow finally took down the offending images.

Given that Zillow is facing all manner of legal challenges from investors who lost money when the company pulled out of iBuying as well as a suit from a discount brokerage, a challenge from local governments over data rights and a fight with IBM over a patent, the company's legal team was clearly happy to have this headache off the docket:

Zillow spokesperson Viet Shelton said Thursday, “We appreciate the court’s ruling and believe it to be an overall favorable decision on the matter.”