Intellectual Property Theft and Real Estate Agents - Do Not Be Stupid
Posted by Benjamin Dona on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 5:10pm.
The internet is a remarkable tool for real estate agents to use in their daily business life. The multitude of website providers and the information available to be used as website content is almost limitless. However, with such use also comes a fair amount of responsibility and accountability on your part as a professional. Flying by the seat of your pants and not taking these two things seriously are the stupidest things you can possibly do as an agent/webmaster.
Take this case as an example - The Pros Advantage. Seems the agent hired a firm to design a new website and they literally copied the design and code from a very well known and respected real estate website provider, Real Estate Webmasters (REW). They even left REW's copyright code right in the agent's new knockoff website design. How completely stupid and unprofessional is that?
This is the type of thing that can get you into a world of hurt, both from a legal standpoint and from a reputation management perspective. As the owner of a website, you're responsible for its content from the get go. Using the defense that you did not know or were unaware is no excuse. If you want to play on the internet, you have to play by the rules or suffer the consequences. Anyone with half a brain should know that you must do your homework in order to be educated about what it is you are doing in your business life. Having a website and using the internet demands such an effort on your part and trusting it to someone else without your oversight is one of the worst paths you should ever consider taking.
While I do not know anything about the business practices of The Pros Advantage as a website provider, I can easily see from the screenshots that what they have done is not on the up and up. The web is full of companies who cut corners and do things that are unseemly and this case appears to be one of them IMHO.
So, to all you agents out there that are thinking about using the internet as a marketing tool, be aware of your responsibilities and take them seriously. Do your due diligence first, otherwise, you could be setting yourself up for more headaches than you could ever imagine.
Update: It looks like the agent in this case took the offending site down.
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Share6 Responses to "Intellectual Property Theft and Real Estate Agents - Do Not Be Stupid"
Wow... that was a serious mistake (using the code from another well known website).
I designed my own real estate agent website, but it took quite a bit of time.
Posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 4:28pm.
Yep, it's about the dumbest thing you can do.
Not only is it costly if you wind up in a legal situation, it is one of the quickest ways to get your reputation destroyed on the web.
Posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 4:57pm.
What I hate too is finding my photos on other agent websites and blogs. They are either ignorant or stupid.
Posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 4:51pm.
Especially when you consider you can good quality photos that are royalty free from websites that only charge a buck or two.
I know things are tough right now, but how cheap can you be when it comes to your business?
Posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 5:03pm.
Today the case of copying the website design is very common and people who copy sites are basically cheaters...so some technique must be employed to try and prevent this.
Posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 3:39am.
I followed this on REW and I thought the way they handled it was very professional. The culprits are lucky they gave them plenty of chances to fix the problem. Other people aren't so nice, and if you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, you could find yourself paying a hefty amount of cash for the mistake.
Posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 1:32pm.