Brokers and Their Web Partners: Anticipating Change
In light of impending alterations stemming from the settlement agreement in the anti-trust litigation, updates to broker and agent websites are inevitable. It is imperative to initiate planning for these modifications immediately. Do not assume that your vendor is already addressing these changes; it is crucial to initiate the conversation proactively. While it may seem like the sky is falling, there is potential for brighter outcomes. "The rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated." – Mark Twain Two decades ago, the emergence of IDX and VOW sparked concerns about the future of real estate and the role of agents. However, the enduring value of real estate agents transcends mere gatekeeping for property searches. Despite fluctuations in commissions, driven by home value inflation (more commission per trade) and escalating referral fees to portals (less commission per trade), the necessity of real estate agents remains robust. Even during crises such as the housing bubble burst in 2008, real estate professionals proved indispensable, safeguarding home sellers through tumultuous times. Facing another pivotal moment, the traditional practice of offering compensation to buyer's agents via the MLS is ending. While apprehension abounds, there are compelling reasons to believe in the enduring value of real estate agents. Consumer satisfaction with real estate services remains high, and alternative models like discount brokers and FSBO have failed to gain traction. The full-service approach continues to resonate with consumers and investors alike. Key Rule Changes Impacting Broker Websites: 1. Publication of Buyer Agent Compensation Listing brokers are the only ones allowed to display seller concessions on their websites, enhancing transparency. Collaborate with your vendor to effectively showcase these concessions, leveraging features to make listings more appealing. This presents an opportunity to drive increased traffic and capitalize on lead generation. 2. Requirement of Buyer Representation Agreements Buyers must sign representation agreements before viewing properties. This mandate can serve as a catalyst for enhanced lead conversion. Brokers should focus on streamlining the process and offer seamless digital solutions for negotiating commissions and signing contracts. Planning Ahead for Success It is evident that proactive planning is essential to navigate these impending changes successfully. With the industry likely to undergo simultaneous transformations, the time to act is now. Collaborate with industry experts like WAV Group and your real estate technology vendors to devise strategies that align with the evolving landscape. Waiting until the changes take effect could put your brokerage at a disadvantage. Strategic planning sessions can provide clarity and direction, ensuring readiness for the forthcoming shifts. In conclusion, while change may be daunting, it also presents opportunities for innovation and growth. Embrace the evolving landscape and position yourself for success by planning ahead, and staying ahead of your competition. What's at Risk? Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com, Movoto, and Redfin are all brokers with billions in revenue at risk. They have robust buyer agent networks, but are prohibited from displaying the seller's concession of listing brokers (except Redfin). Only the listing firm can do that. Not sure how their business model changes, but they are planning. P.S. Does the QR code on your yard sign take you to the landing page of the listing that displays the seller concessions? What about your virtual tours, or automated marketing tools for new listings, pendings, solds, etc.? You need to evaluate everything to get ahead of this. It is an enormous project that will take time. Start now. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

New FCC Regulation Deals Blow to Real Estate Lead Generators
New consumer protection regulations from the Federal Communications Commission aims to protect consumers from the scams and spam caused by the "lead generator" robo-calls and texts loophole, and encourages an opt-in approach for delivering email to text messages. The law extends the same do-not-call protections and CAN/SPAM to text messages, making it illegal to send text messages to numbers on the Do-Not-Call registry. Real estate leads are among the most expensive leads generated across all American business, often leading to real estate professionals paying as high as 40% of their commission for a sale generated from a lead. Many leads generated at online shopping websites are sold over and over again, causing consumers to be inundated with spammy text messages and robo-calls that seem to have no end. Now, there must be a clear opt-in by consumers to this form of communication. The FCC wants the consumer to opt in on a one-to-one basis to each company that will receive their contact information. According to the FCC, U.S. consumers receive approximately 4 billion robo-calls per month. In their enforcement efforts, the FCC has issued fines to some companies, like a Texas-based health insurance company whom I am not naming, of $255 million. A Florida-based timeshare operation was fined $120 million. The FCC also adopted new rules to stop illegal robo-calls that originate overseas from entering American phone networks. U.S. Federal Communications Commission moved to make AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal on 8 February. Real Estate Impact Firms should update their agent independent contractor agreements. Real estate agents routinely use robo-call/robo-text services for lead generation and lead incubation. If the firm provides an agent with lead information that is added to a robo-call/robo-text service, there could be significant liability to the firm. Many brokerage firms also share consumer information with their affiliated services companies. For example, a lead generated on a broker's website gets shared with a brokers' mortgage or insurance affiliate who also uses similar robo-call/robo-text systems for lead incubation. Agreements should be updated to prevent violations by these third-parties from blowing back on the real estate firm. Moreover, the consumer will need to opt-in to each service (i.e. checkbox for mortgage, title, insurance, etc.) When you collect consumer information on a lead form or elsewhere, you likely need to update your terms of use to explicitly require a consumer opt-in to text messaging. Examples of opt-in language from portal sites: Figure 1 Realtor.com Figure 2 From Zillow.com From our reading of the FCC rulings, these sites would need to specifically say that they are going to send my information to Agent Name, Firm Name, Mortgage Company, and so on, and the consumer needs to check the box to agree. Most of the portals send consumers to their in-house call center before they send it to an agent, so there may be a loophole where the call center gets permission from the consumer at the point of transfer. Greg Robertson and Rob Hahn did a great podcast on this with Matthew Marx of Evocalize. See below to watch: Not to debate Rob – he is a very strong debater – but his view is: "calling expired listings will not be a problem with this new FCC rule." I would suggest that it could be a problem if the consumer is on the Do-Not-Call list. Rob would likely agree with me. Existing clients of the firm or prior lead gen records may be excluded from the FCC ruling. The FCC is still processing the outline of their policies, so there are many unanswered questions. In the aforementioned "Industry Relations" podcast, they believe that the FCC will go after the lead generators and not the robo-dialers/texters, but there is no certainty there. I guess if you buy leads, you need to CYA to make sure that it does not blow back on you as an FCC violation. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Interest Rates and the Verdict
What an exhilarating start to November 2023. Just as I started feeling comfortable planning for the holidays, the intensity and excitement in our industry has ratcheted up – in a big way! Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in the John Burns Research and Consulting Housing Market Outlook 2024. The speakers and content surrounding mortgage interest rates and the impact on the U.S. housing market had my attention from the outset. The debate of "higher for longer" and "slightly softer" was influenced by so many nuances. One expert said, "no one knows what they are talking about" when referring to what's next. So, comforting. The fact that 80% of U.S. homeowners have mortgages at 5% or below is fundamentally constraining supply more than mortgage rates of 7% or above seem to be constraining demand. These sub-5% mortgages are viewed as a financial asset of homeowners versus the more traditional liability. Very few homeowners are motivated to trade a sub-5% mortgage for a 7%+ mortgage. Cash buyers are now approaching 30% of the U.S. luxury home marketplace. The new home segment of the industry is approaching 30% market share in the United States. This unprecedented inertia is driven by available inventory and homebuilders' commitment to buying down mortgage rates for new home buyers. One influential CEO referenced buy-down programs, sometimes paying 600 to 800 bps to buy down rates in certain communities, that ultimately deliver a 5.75% 30-year fixed rate mortgage to a buyer. As I observed in April 2023, homebuilders are way out in front of the resale markets with these enticing structures. We entered November 2023 with a significant jury decision in one of our industry's class action lawsuits. I leave legal opinions and speculation to far more qualified minds. My focus shifted months ago to the practical implications to the practices in our industry. I'm confident in these statements: Our clients will be more aware, through our engagement, that commissions are, as they have always been, negotiable. Sellers will continue to have the choice to offer buy side compensation, as they always have. We will have far more transparency with our clients on who gets paid in a transaction, including referral sources, lead generation sources, and portals. We will formalize our relationships with clients on the buy side of a trade in a similar manner as on the listing side of a trade. At Compass, we hosted two webinars on the above, on November 2 and November 7. Between the two sessions, we had more than 9,000 unique URLs signed in. Many unique users were "watch parties" from Compass conference rooms and offices. Best estimate is we reached 12,000 Compass professionals in our first week delivering messages of calm and confidence for our future. We further have a comprehensive, internally generated coaching program that launched today and flows deep into Q1 2024. This is when the good become great. We are making every effort to get closer to our clients. Intellect and execution at its finest. This Is Where We Are Now. Mark McLaughlin serves as CEO of McLaughlin Ventures and M&A Advisory at WAV Group. To view the original article, visit the McLaughlin Ventures blog.

VHT Inc. v. Zillow Group Inc.
In my reading of the ruling and the reasoning by the judge(s), they lean in the direction of Zillow having a lot of latitude to do many things, like finding in favor of Zillow on VHT's secondary liability claims related to the Digs photos. They really only fined Zillow for the images that their staff tagged and featured ("volitional conduct"). Copyright holders must provide some evidence showing Zillow (or anyone else) exercised control beyond the general operation of selected images for upload, download, transmission or storage, or instigated any copying, storage or distribution of photos. While the jury found that Zillow had infringed VHT's rights in all of them — more than 28,000 photographs — the district court granted Zillow's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict for all but the 3,912 photos that Zillow moderators had selected and tagged for searchability. The court also ruled that thumbnails seem to be okay. The court also noted that Digs also displayed the entire VHT image, not merely a thumbnail, so the image served the same function as the previous VHT version and was not transformative. Moreover, if Zillow had allowed certain features, they may have avoided the claim all together — "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research." And lastly, Zillow took appropriate responsive measures after receiving the notice by immediately requesting information to confirm VHT's copyright ownership and cross-reference the photos with licensing information, which VHT failed to provide. Ninth Circuit finds that online real estate marketplace Zillow did not directly infringe photos from VHT Inc., real estate photography studio, by hosting those photos and making them available to others, but that Zillow's tagging and cataloging of other photos to provide search capabilities did constitute direct infringement and was not transformative fair use. Plaintiff VHT Inc., a real estate photography studio, sued online real estate service Zillow for copyright infringement, alleging that Zillow's use of VHT's photographs on its website exceeded the scope of the licenses VHT had with brokers, agents and listing services. Zillow used VHT's photos on two parts of its website: the "Listing Platform" and "Digs." The core of the website, the Listing Platform features photos and information about real estate properties. Digs features photos of artfully designed rooms in some of those properties and is geared toward home improvement and remodeling. Zillow tagged photos from the Listing Platform so that Digs users could search the database by various criteria, such as room type, style, cost and color. The district court granted partial summary judgment in favor of Zillow on the direct infringement claim related to its use of the images on the Listing Platform. VHT's other claims advanced to trial, after which the jury awarded it $8.27 million in damages. The district court granted in part Zillow's post-trial motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, finding in favor of Zillow on VHT's secondary liability claims related to the Digs photos, but deeming Zillow's use of other Digs photos to be willful infringement. The court also reduced the damages to $4 million. The parties cross-appealed issues stemming from the partial summary judgment, the jury verdict and the judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The Ninth Circuit first analyzed the alleged direct infringement for use of the images on the Listing Platform and Digs sites, then addressed the issue of secondary liability, and concluded with an analysis of damages. The focus of the court's analysis on the direct infringement claims was causation — whether VHT could establish that Zillow's "volitional conduct" was the direct cause of the infringement. Noting that the volitional conduct requirement "takes on greater importance in cases involving automated systems, like the Zillow website," the court cited its 2017 decision in Perfect 10 Inc. v. Giganews Inc. (coincidentally decided on the first day of the VHT trial), for the proposition that website owners may be held liable for direct copyright liability "when they are actively involved in the infringement." To demonstrate the required conduct, VHT must provide some evidence showing Zillow exercised control beyond the general operation of selected images for upload, download, transmission or storage, or instigated any copying, storage or distribution of VHT's photos. The Ninth Circuit concluded that VHT failed to meet this burden for either the Listing Platform and for the majority of the Digs photos. On the Listing Platform, third parties, such as real estate agents and brokers who use VHT's services, select and upload each photo, designate how long the photos can be used and certify the extent of their rights to use each photo. Zillow's system classifies each photo based on these designations. Because the content of the Listing Platform is populated with information submitted by third-party sources who had attested to the permissible use of that information and Zillow's system for managing photos on the Listing Platform was constructed in a copyright-protective way, the court concluded that VHT could not satisfy its burden of proving that Zillow selected the photos that were uploaded. The photos used on the Digs portion of the site fell into three categories: (1) nearly 4,000 photographs that the Zillow moderators had selected and tagged for searchable functionality; (2) nearly 2,100 displayed but nonsearchable images; and (3) more than 22,000 photographs that were not displayed in Digs (a relatively small portion of which were tagged for searchability). While the jury found that Zillow had infringed VHT's rights in all of them — more than 28,000 photographs — the district court granted Zillow's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict for all but the 3,912 photos that Zillow moderators had selected and tagged for searchability. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's determination with respect to the more than 22,109 photos that were not displayed in the Digs portion of the site, rejecting VHT's theory that the jury could have found direct copyright infringement by reasonably inferring that Zillow made them available for public display. Neither the language of the statute nor case law supports the notion that the display right under the Copyright Act encompasses an exclusive right to "make available for display." Perhaps more important, the court of appeals noted, VHT had not advanced this theory at trial, precluding the court from sustaining the jury verdict of direct infringement on these grounds. The Ninth Circuit also affirmed the district court's determination that Zillow did not violate VHT's display rights in the 2,093 images that were displayed but tagged as searchable in the Digs portion of the site. These were photos that Digs users copied to "personal boards" — digital bulletin boards of images that users create by saving or uploading images from the Listing Platform, or by uploading their own images. Users can share a link to their boards, typically for private use, with other users. Zillow had a process by which images with the correct rights profile, once saved to a personal board, would automatically be put in a queue for review by a Zillow moderator, who could then decide whether to designate the photo for tagging on Digs and for public display. Not all photos in the queue are reviewed. The court rejected VHT's argument that these photos had the potential to be tagged and therefore were infringing, explaining that "the possibility that images might be moderated and tagged — conduct that is volitional — is not sufficient to transform Zillow from a ‘passive host' to a ‘direct cause' of the display of VHT's images." Unlike photos that Zillow curated, selected and tagged for searchable functionality, these photos were displayed by user actions, not the conduct of Zillow or its moderators. Further, Zillow's encouragement of users to share photos through its site was not sufficient to "instigate" copying and incur liability. Zillow did not appeal the jury's verdict with respect to the nearly 4,000 photos its moderators selected and tagged, but appealed the district court's summary judgment decision that "as a matter of law … Digs' searchable functionality does not constitute a fair use." Zillow argued that Digs functioned as a search engine and Zillow's tagging to allow users to find certain decorating or remodeling features in images and its display of the images in response to a search were transformative. VHT argued that Zillow's Digs was not a search engine. After reviewing the precedent on search engines and fair use, and noting that "the label ‘search engine' is not a talismanic term that serves as an on-off switch as to fair use," the Ninth Circuit considered "the details and function" of Zillow's Digs in applying the fair use factors. Although it reasoned that Digs was a form of a search engine because it offers users searchable functionality, the court concluded that it was "qualitatively different than Google and other open-universe search engines" because it did not scan the entire internet. The search results did not direct users to the original source of the photos, but instead linked to other pages within Zillow's website "and, in some cases, to third-party merchants that sell items similar to those featured in the photo." The court also noted that Digs also displayed the entire VHT image, not merely a thumbnail, so the image served the same function as the previous VHT version and was not transformative. Zillow's use of the images was also distinguishable from other acceptable uses, such as Google Books, because Zillow's use "does nothing to further the use of copyrighted works for the socially valuable purposes identified in the Copyright Act itself, like ‘criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.'" The Ninth Circuit also affirmed the district court's ruling against secondary infringement, finding that Zillow did not materially contribute to or induce the infringement. The court held that there was insufficient evidence that Zillow had the technical ability to screen out or identify infringing VHT photos among the many photos that users saved or uploaded daily to Digs. Furthermore, in its letter to Zillow, VHT identified the alleged infringing images only by property address, which "in no way identified the proper feed or the correct photo. Thus, Zillow did not have appropriately ‘specific' information necessary to take ‘simple measures' to remedy the violation." Finally, the court addressed the size of the damages award, which depended on Zillow's willfulness in its infringement and whether VHT's photos used on Digs were part of a "compilation" or individual works. If the VHT photo database was one "work" for the purposes of the Copyright Act, then VHT would be limited to a single award of statutory damages for Zillow's use of thousands of photos on Digs. Because there were numerous copyright registrations and thousands of photos, however, the court declined to rule on the compilation issue and instead remanded to the district court to determine whether the VHT photos were a compilation. With regard to Zillow's willfulness, the court reversed the district court's finding of willful infringement. It explained that VHT's notice to Zillow of potential infringing use was "minimal: one letter with a list of allegedly infringing photos, designated by residential street address, not web address." Furthermore, the court noted, Zillow took appropriate responsive measures after receiving the notice by immediately requesting information to confirm VHT's copyright ownership and cross-reference the photos with licensing information, which VHT failed to provide. Summary prepared by David Grossman and Camron Dowlatshahi. To view the original article, visit the Loeb & Loeb LLP blog.

Markt Position on Attribution in IDX and VOW
Markt has been made aware of a potential revision to the currently proposed amendments to Policy Statement 7.58 that would change broker attribution to agent attribution in IDX and VOW. Markt opposes revisions to national policy that expand the privileges granted to MLS participants to their affiliated subscribers. Markt submits the following for consideration by the industry. As an organization of multiple MLSs representing our local markets and the value of the multiple listing service, we believe that additional research and understanding of the proposed amendments is necessary before any action is taken. A statement of the problem, solutions, and prevalence has not been provided and there is little awareness that a change has been proposed. Agent Attribution Undermines the Intent of IDX According to NAR, "Internet Data Exchange (IDX), also referred to as 'Broker Reciprocity,' is the next stage in the evolution of MLS as the primary means of enhancing cooperation between REALTORS® to facilitate the purchase and sale of real property." Reciprocity is created by and between MLS participants, not their affiliated subscribers. While advancements in technology and consumer choice must continue, erasing the competitive opportunity of broker firms by national mandate does not move our industry forward nor improve consumer experience. Since the inception of IDX, cooperating brokers have allowed their listings to be displayed by their competitors with the knowledge that they could compete and generate leads with their own sites. After many have invested significant time and expense in their IDX technology as a lead generation and firm differentiator, requiring agent contact information to be listed stifles competition and innovation in broker sites. Listing Ownership and Advertising Rights Belong to the Participant Beyond lead generation and business concerns is the interest of the consumer. Listing agent contact information does not provide further transparency to the consumer as the listing agent is not the owner of the listing. The requirements of each state and their license laws regarding advertising vary but recognize that advertising and promotion of listings is a function of the listing firm. Consumer transparency is best served by directing consumers to the owner of the listing, the brokerage, to manage inquiries as they see fit within the bounds of their existing legal and ethical duties. Requiring Listing Agent Contact in IDX Display Circumvents the MLS Participant Relationship IDX is a Participant-to-Participant agreement that extends permissions for the display of another broker's listings. Further expanding this agreement to listing agents fundamentally changes the meaning of MLS participation. Listing agents, as subscribers, receive their access and privileges within the MLS system under their broker, the participant. If national policy were to mandate display and contact information of subscribers, it would interfere with the independent business decisions of the participant in the management of their intellectual property. Recommendations Markt recommends that this proposal does not advance without further research and understanding to identify what this policy recommendation is trying to accomplish in order to understand the best approach. We are strongly opposed to any modifications to IDX policy that include agent attribution and contact. Markt is a multi-MLS service organization focused on pooling resources and expertise to serve brokers/agents better wherever they may be. Serving ARMLS, Metro MLS, realMLS and other MLSs, Markt supports noncontiguous markets with customer support, marketing, technical resources and services of their choosing.

Are Electronic Signatures Legal? Everything You Need to Know
Despite the ubiquity of electronic documents and signatures, there is still a lot of confusion about their legality. In this blog, we answer the most frequently asked questions about eSignatures and whether they are legal. Are eSignatures legal? The short answer is YES! Thanks to two US laws, the E-Sign Act (2000) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA, 1999), eSignatures are legally enforceable and trusted across the country and have been for over 20 years. They have the same legal validity as handwritten, or "wet," signatures. Other regions have enacted their own eSignature laws, such as the Electronic Identification and Trust Services Regulation (eIDAS) in the European Union and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada. eSignatures are a reliable and effective way to do business both at home and abroad. What makes an eSignature legal? According to the ESIGN Act, electronic signature means an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record. eSignatures must have the following features to stand up in court: Authentication: Signers must be authenticated so you can prove they are who they say they are. Consent: Signers must consent to doing business and signing documents electronically. Intent: Signers must demonstrate intent to sign to prove they did not sign unknowingly and weren't tricked. Paper trail: By this, we mean a digital paper trail, of course! There must be a detailed audit log of all signing session activity, users, clicks, actions, etc. Some solutions might also certify documents using a digital Certificate Authority on the Adobe Approved Trust List to "seal" the document, so you know if anything has been altered. Retention: All signed documents are sent to all parties and stored securely for reference. Are typed signatures legal? As long as the aforementioned rules are followed, typed signatures are perfectly legal and enforceable. In fact, you don't necessarily even need to "sign" anything at all. A simple check box that says, "I Agree" when signing up for a service is considered a type of electronic signature. The simple act of typing your name also helps to demonstrate intent to sign. What is non-repudiation? This ten-dollar word refers to a signer being unable to claim at a later date that they didn't sign a document or record. If a signature is non-repudiable, it means that it is ironclad and can't be challenged. Has eSignature validity every been challenged in court? The validity of eSignatures has been tested many times in court, and by and large, they have been upheld at the state and federal level. In Zakuski v. General American, the electronic process certifying a change in insurance beneficiary was upheld as sufficient for demonstrating intent. In Schrock v. Nomac Drilling, LLC, an employee tried to challenge an eSignature, but his employer's audit trail showed that the document was electronically signed using the employee's SSN at a specific location when the former employee was at that same location. The judge ruled that the signature was valid. Other cases include Obi v. Exeter Health Resources, Inc. and Moton v. Maplebear Inc. With Constellation1 eSign, you can do business and have your documents signed with complete peace of mind. Our eSignature solution is secure, reliable, and allows you to attach non-repudiable signatures to your important documents from anywhere. To view the original article, visit the Constellation1 blog.

Virtual Showings: Seller Considerations
These days, business as usual looks a little different. Stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and other efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 make some in-person activities more difficult. Showings and open houses are a bit of a challenge for sellers, buyers, and their real estate agents. We're hearing questions about whether buyers can have their agents go to showings or open houses without them, photograph or video-record the homes, and share the results with the potential buyers. Some have proposed having agents livestream while walking through a property and talking with remotely connected buyers. All these options exist, so long as you address certain concerns.

Pocket Listing Ruling Opens Up Inventory
Pocket listings are off-market listings which may never reach the public market through the MLS. Sellers choose to keep listings off market mainly for privacy reasons or they hope to retain more value through the perception that the listing is more exclusive than listings in the MLS. Last week, the board of the National Association of Realtors overwhelmingly approved a new pocket listing policy (sometimes known as "whisper" listings) with a 729-70 vote in favor of instituting the controversial new policy. Under the Clear Cooperation Policy (also known as MLS Statement 8.0), listing brokers who are participating in a multiple listing service are required to submit a listing to the MLS within one day of marketing the listing to the public. According to NAR, MLSs will have until May 1, 2020 to adopt the policy.

Failure of ADA Compliance by Restaurant Website, Says California Court of Appeals
Compliance to the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and the California Unruh Civil Rights Act received a significant boost this month when the California Court of Appeals affirmed a higher court's ruling against a restaurant (Thurston vs. Midvale Corporation). The California Supreme Court ruled that Midvale Corporation violated the Unruh Act. The ruling found Midvale's restaurant website was not usable by a blind person with a screen reader. When the plaintiff visited the restaurant's website, their screen reader software was unable to make a reservation or read the menu. The Court of Appeal also affirmed the higher court's injunction to force Midvale to update their website to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). ADA compliance is still on our radar and continues to be a hotly debated topic in the courts. Last September, the DoJ punted back to the House of Representatives with a letter asking for clarification of ADA's applicability to websites. Until the House determines proper guidelines on this topic, we can expect the courts to make judgments based on their interpretations. Here are a few highlights from the latest Appellate Court opinions and their relationship to real estate.

Hefty Security Breach Fines by the U.K. Under GDPR Regulation
The United Kingdom Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) announced substantial security breach fines on two large companies last week. British Airways and Marriott now are feeling the impact for security breaches of customer information in 2018. The £183.39 million ($230 million) fine for British Airways and its parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), is a record under the GDPR. Four days later, the U.K. data authority fined Marriott £99 million ($123 million) from a security breach in 2014 that was only found in November 2018.

NAR Moves to Dismiss Moehrl Lawsuit
The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) moved to dismiss the Moehrl v. NAR lawsuit on the basis that the complaint misrepresents NAR rules for the operation of Multiple Listing Services (MLSs), which have long been recognized by courts across the country as protecting consumers and creating competitive, efficient markets that benefit home buyers and sellers. The filing was made in federal court in Chicago.

Acquisition Hell: The Tech Investment
One company's success becomes another's pain. Mergers and acquisitions over the last few years have taken a toll on brokerages and their tech stacks. Finding means to protect highly invested tools is becoming more difficult. Maybe the first place to begin is with the contract.

MLSs Demand Broker Data Sovereignty
A battle was waged between MLSs and the National Association of REALTORS® against the Library of Congress, who administers copyright in America. For many years, it has been the common practice of MLSs to copyright their data set, referred to as the MLS compilation, each month or each quarter. About a year ago, the copyright office of the Library of Congress continued to receive the copyright applications but stopped issuing copyright numbers.

CCPA for the U.S. Real Estate Industry: An Introduction
In the last few years, there has been a renewed focus on consumer digital privacy rights around the world. Most notably, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been the most prominent and far-reaching attempt to regulate how businesses use private personal data. Driven by this movement, California has passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Much like its predecessor, the GDPR, CCPA will significantly increase the rights of consumers to access and manage their personal data.

How Computer Vision Helps Portals Comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act
A computer-generated voice on Facebook tells a woman viewing a page about an image. She is blind. She's never seen the photos of her family posted on the social media platform before. She smiles and explains in the video that, "...unless you have somebody to describe it to you, even having three words just helps flesh out all of the details that I can't see..." Technologies like Computer Vision are empowering millions of visually impaired Internet users to be able to perceive the world in ways they hadn't been able to before. The technology can also help companies in the United States comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which mandates standards for disabled computer users.

Collateral Analytics Sues Nationstar and Xome for Stealing IP
Real estate brokers and MLSs are pretty familiar with Collateral Analytics. Collateral Analytics provides real estate brokers with a variety of tools, including market trends, market share and AVMs. Collateral Analytics is particularly interesting to real estate brokers because of the unique blend of MLS data and public record data. Brokers believe that MLS data introduces a level of accuracy and timeliness to analytics products, making them profoundly more accurate than Zillow Group's Zestimates.

Zillow Protects Broker Data
WAV Group supports brokers and MLSs in constructing data licensing agreements with users of data records that belong to the broker. When a company like Zillow ingests broker data, like all recipients, they must adhere to the data license agreement, which typically requires that you cannot allow the data to be used by a third party. The blog McMansionHell.com is learning the hard way that using data from Zillow without proper authority is a copyright violation that Zillow will pursue. Not only will Zillow pursue the violation, but they are contractually bound to pursue the violation. The media around the case is a bit confused, so let me try to break it down in layman's terms.

Risk Management for Real Estate: Insurance Requirements
Working as a real estate agent or broker comes with an inherent amount of legal risk. That's why real estate professionals need insurance. Learn about risk management for real estate and how much insurance you need. Malpractice Liability Risks Faced by Real Estate Pros The single greatest liability exposure most real estate agents and brokers face is for malpractice lawsuits by dissatisfied buyers or sellers. They could allege things like fraud, misrepresentations, negligence, failure to disclose and other violations of the agent's or broker's legal and fiduciary duties. Even if you're innocent, a malpractice lawsuit can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you're a sole proprietor or partner in a partnership, you'll be personally liable for malpractice lawsuits. You can avoid personal liability if you form a corporation or limited liability company LLC. But, not as much as you might think. No limited liability entity protects you from personal liability for your own malpractice or other personal wrongdoing. If your business doesn't have enough assets to pay a judgment obtained against you, your personal assets are liable. Thus, your personal assets will always be on the line if you're being sued for malpractice. This is why you should always have errors and omissions insurance. Example: Janet, a real estate broker, forms a corporation of which she is the sole shareholder. She represents a client in the sale of a home. After a sale closes, the buyer discovers that severe building defects were not disclosed. The buyer sues Janet and her client, the seller, for fraud. Janet is incorporated but she could be held personally liable (along with her corporation) for any damages caused by her alleged fraud. Both Janet's personal assets and those of her corporation are at risk.

DMCA Safe Harbor Alert for Broker Websites
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides some protection to website owners from tiresome litigation when an image or other copyrighted content is found to be on their website. Before December 31st of next year, you should electronically register your designated agent. Even if you filed before using the old paper method, you must refile electronically by Dec. 31, 2017, or your DMCA Safe Harbor will no longer be in effect. By now, I think that every website owner has gotten some form of letter from Getty Images or other copyright trolls – and this will continue. In fact, now that the Copyright office allows firms to electronically submit thousands of images for copyright protection, it is likely to cause more copyright claims for photos. The safe harbor provision works something like this. First, you must have a DMCA notice on your website. WAV Group recommends that you have an attorney review your DMCA and your Terms of Use each year to assure that you are in compliance with current laws. While you are at it, plan to update the copyright on your site to ©2017. Also make sure that you incorporate the National Association of REALTORS® guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act by adding a statement into your terms of use, like, "If you have a disability that is preventing you from experiencing this website, call..." The most important part of compliance with the DMCA Safe Harbor is that you pay a fee and designate an agent for any copyright violations. Under the Safe Harbor Act, if you are found to be infringing, the copyright holder will notify you to take it down. If you comply with the notice, the issue should be resolved unless there are extenuating circumstances. There is a lot more information at copyright.gov.

Real Estate Companies Should Address Website Accessibility to Avoid Lawsuits
The business of real estate has become increasingly digital, and agents and consumers rely on websites to share and find real estate information, market homes and conduct property searches. In fact, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors®, 95 percent of all recent buyers used the internet at some point during the home search process. For that reason, it's important that all consumers, including those with disabilities, have equal access to real estate agent and company websites. That's according to panelists at a session Sunday about website accessibility best practices during the 2016 REALTORS® Conference & Expo. Alisa Carr, partner at Leech Tishman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a litigator and a real estate transaction lawyer and said that while the Americans with Disabilities Act predates widespread use of the internet and courts have been split on the issue, recent court cases have found that a business's accessibility obligations do extend to its website and mobile applications. Carr recommended companies familiarize themselves with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 AA posted at www.w3.org, which is a technical standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium to help make sites more accessible. "It's a very user-friendly website and a great resource to educate you on how to start to make your sites compliant," she said. "Make sure your vendors are using these standards and understand that your site needs to be accessible, and not just navigable and pretty. Also, hold your designer to these standards to ensure that the site continues to remain in compliance as content evolves."

Choosing the Legal Form for Your Real Estate Business
Most real estate agents are independent contractors—self-employed business owners who are affiliated with a licensed real estate broker in their state. As such, they are running independent businesses, even though they must work under a licensed broker's supervision. This post will help guide real estate agents and brokers on how to choose the correct real estate legal forms. Of course, real estate brokers are also running businesses—they usually own a real estate brokerage firm, either themselves or with other brokers, for which one or more agents work. Every business has a legal form. If you're working as a broker or agent right now, you are almost certainly involved in one of the following types of business entities: sole proprietorship partnership corporation, or limited liability company (LLC). The sole proprietorship and partnership are the "default" entities— they come into existence automatically unless a business's owners take the steps necessary to form one of the other entities.

Data Security is the Law
Most cybercrime experts say it isn't "if" your data will be breached, it's "when." And real estate brokers must understand that securing data isn't just good business practice — it's the law. Today, 47 states have data security and private protection laws on the books to safeguard consumers and businesses when breaches occur (Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands also have laws). Melanie Wyne, senior technology policy representative at the National Association of REALTORS®, says these state laws typically explain what constitutes a breach, how businesses or organizations should notify their clients when a breach happens, and whether there are any exemptions to the law. These laws also describe what kinds of personal information must be secured, such as social security numbers, driver's license numbers, and financial account information. Wyne says the laws may vary but that there is one common denominator: "What's true for all the state laws is that they require having encryption on any personal data." According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Massachusetts' data breach notification law is one of the most comprehensive in the country. It establishes minimum standards that any person, agency, or entity that owns or licenses personal information on Massachusetts' residents must meet and requires the implementation of "a comprehensive information security program." Some of the other requirements include security training for employees, secure storage, protocols for strong user authentication, prevention of terminated employees from accessing records containing personal information, and annual reviews of the scope of security measures.

[FAA UPDATE] The Dream of Using Drones for Real Estate is Becoming A Reality
So, you want to use a drone for real estate purposes. Your competitor is doing it and their videos are coming out in 4K high definition footage and are being posted across their social media channels and websites. So why can't you do the same? Well, you can, but the answer is a bit more complicated than that. Let's take an in-depth look at this topic so you can have a better understanding of what's going on in the world of drones. Commercial drone use is currently banned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States. However, the FAA does allow the use of drones for recreation. The FAA specifically defines hobby or recreational use as "Taking photographs with a model aircraft for personal use." On the other hand, they define commercial use as "A Realtor using a model aircraft to photograph a property that he is trying to sell and using the photos in the property's real estate listing." That's pretty black and white. So is your competitor who's posting aerial footage of his newest property breaking the law? If they don't have an exemption from the FAA, then yes, they are. They might be breaking the law, but the FAA isn't running around writing citations for every real estate company using a drone to film a property. They just don't have the resources for that. Your competition might be breaking FAA regulations, but a lot of companies are, and those companies could face heavy consequences, including large fines. If you want to use drones to take videos or pictures of your properties, then you'll need to be granted permission by obtaining an FAA Section 333 Exemption. The FAA isn't sitting around denying businesses the Section 333 Exemption either. They're actually approving a surprising number of exemptions due to pressure coming from all types of businesses, not just real estate companies. As of July 2015, the FAA has officially approved 840+ exemptions, allowing companies to use drones for commercial use. The process isn't quick, as you can expect when working with a government agency like the FAA, but it has been sped up a lot since last year. Currently, it only takes two to three months to be approved.

Interest Minimizer Program Sued by Feds for Misleading Consumers
In recent real estate borrowing news, the "Interest Minimizer" mortgage program touted as "one of the greatest financial secrets of our time," promising to save borrowers thousands in mortgage interest, is in hot water with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for misleading consumers and making false promises. Federal lawsuit filed The May 11th filing named the program, offered by Nationwide, its subsidiary Loan Payment Administration, and Daniel Lipsky, founder/president/officer/owner, on behalf of 10,000 California consumers enrolled in the program. It just doesn't add up Consumers enrolled in the program send half their monthly mortgage payment every two weeks, making an additional monthly payment annually. However, Nationwide charges the participants a setup fee of up to $995, then a $3.50 biweekly processing fee. The CFPB alleges consumers end up paying more in fees than they save in interest for several years. Only about a quarter of consumers have been enrolled longer than four years. Worse yet, some leave the program without having saved any money at all. Nationwide, however, collected about $49 million in setup fees. A sad example CFPB's example demonstrates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on a $160,204 loan with 4.125% interest, a consumer would not save enough to recoup fees paid to Nationwide until nine years into the program. Monthly interest savings wouldn't be realized until 14 years – more than 20 years to realize half the savings promised.

Could You Be Stealing Stock Photos?
I'm part of a couple of different business groups. In the last two months, a serious but surprising topic has come up among the group members three times. My professional peers were contacted by lawyers telling them that they'd used an image on their blog without paying for it or citing its source. If this is something you've ever done, say, scrolled through Google images to find what looks like a great pic to include with your latest blog article, you could be the next facing legal action. So, I have to ask, who took the photo in your blog post? And did you pay for it? Could you be stealing stock photos? "Come on," I can practically hear you saying, "I don't want to/can't afford to buy a new image every single time I post a new article to my blog." Well, I have two responses to that: 1) It's a lot more affordable than you might think (and a LOT more affordable than legal fines). Plus, you can rest easy knowing you're covered if you do purchase all your images. 2) There actually are many free resources for images that you can use safely. Designmodo recently published a Carrie Cousins article on great places to source free stock photography. Titled 16 Places to Find the Best Free Stock Photos, it's just that – a comprehensive and fabulous list of 16 separate sources of free stock imagery. Cousins' selections include: 1. Raumrot2. Unsplash3. Little Visuals

And the Verdict Is ...
Guest contributor Pamela Dittmer McKuen of REALTOR®Mag says: I believe everyone should go to law school and not practice law. Law school teaches you communication skills and a thought process that are very advantageous in anything you do. My parents owned a Century 21 franchise, so I grew up in the business and knew our market. I graduated from Fordham Law School in 1985 and spent the next four years as a real estate attorney, mostly working in the area of conveyances. But I realized I wanted to be involved in the entire transaction, not just part of it. At that time RE/MAX was new in our area. I liked its business model, which I see as more of a salesperson-oriented business than a broker-oriented business. I got my broker-owner license and opened our office in 1991. My parents were in the process of shutting down their business, so I moved into their space. They had 150 agents, and about 20 of them stayed with me. The rest moved on. Productivity Starts with Prospecting Our fundamental belief is that prospecting is the key to success. Technology is important, but it can be stifling at times. It's easy to get caught up in activities that are not productive. Real estate is a people business. You have to be out meeting people and shaking hands.

Broker AVMs (Part 4): NAR’s Proposed Policy
This is part four in a series that I've now concluded will have five parts on the question of whether and how brokers participating in MLS may use listing data of other brokers to power AVMs sold into the real estate vertical. See Part 1 for an intro and Part 2 for advice that NAR gave MLSs in 2013. I examined a letter from The Realty Alliance (TRA) on this subject in Part 3. This post discusses the three broad questions I think NAR needs to answer, describes the current proposal for NAR's policy committee, and examines whether that proposal answers my three questions. I conclude that it does not. Decisions, decisions The NAR multiple listing policy committee has three important and distinct decisions to make at its May meetings in D.C. on the broker AVM issue: 1. Are AVMs indistinguishable for policy purposes from BPOs and CMAs? In TRA's view, the answer is 'yes', and that appears to be the view previously expressed by NAR policy staffers. Both TRA and NAR staffers appear to think that this is a foregone conclusion, but I noted some hedging on that from NAR last fall, and it's plainly a fact that the ML policy committee has never given an answer to this question. If the answer to this question is 'yes,' then no listing broker permission need be obtained for a participant to use MLS data of all brokers in an AVM application (subject to NAR's other policies of general application). In other words, there really cannot be a listing broker opt-out under this view. The committee would also need to address question 2. If the answer to this question 1 is 'no,' then NAR needs to decide whether AVMs get different treatment under its policies or if they are simply not permitted.

Broker AVMs (Part 2): Previous NAR Policy Guidance
This is the second part of an x-part series on the question of MLS participants using listing data from MLS to produce AVMs. See the intro post for background. The text below is from a summary our firm prepared for lawyers attending the Council of MLS's legal seminar in Boise, Idaho last fall. Note that it does not reflect a position by CMLS on the matters discussed in it. Rather, it was our effort on CMLS's behalf to understand the views of NAR policy staff on the matters discussed in it. Note, too, that NAR staff's position may have evolved since last fall. I still think it's a helpful overview of the issue and current policy, against which we can contrast current proposals. We are sharing it with CMLS's permission. It's long-ish... sorry about that. Preliminary dialog with NAR staff: Brokers building "analytic tools" with MLS data Prepared by Larson/Sobotka PLLC on behalf of CMLS September 26, 2013 In August 2013, CMLS legal counsel presented written questions/comments to NAR intended to clarify NAR policy on a matter of interest to MLSs in the U.S. and therefore of interest to the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS). The results are offered here in the form of a dialog, with CMLS's legal counsel's comments, questions, etc., in black serif type on the left margin, and NAR policy staff's responses of August 28, 2013, in blue sans-serif font, indented from the left margin. CMLS recognizes that any response from NAR is limited in scope to the situations described below and might be different if the assertions characterized below as facts prove to be false.

Cybersquatting: New potential problems, and possible solutions
It's hard to believe that almost five years have passed since I posted on this blog about cybersquatting, or typo-squatting. You can read that older post to get the basic ideas; but the examples I gave there no longer work. (I foresaw at the time that my post might prompt action by the broker I used as an example; I'm glad I was right.) As I noted in that older post: A common problem in the industry is that large brokerage firms are great targets for cybersquatters. According to the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (15 U.S.C. 1125(d)) or ACPA, cybersquatting, or cyberpiracy, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name identical to or confusingly similar to someone else's trade- or service mark in bad faith. The most common form in our industry results in folks registering a domain name that is a slight variation of a broker's firm name (also called "typosquatting"), putting up a page on the resulting domain, and selling real-estate-related links on the page. In most cases, this violates the trade- or service marks of the broker and may violate the ACPA. You should be prepared for a whole new wave of problems associated with cybersquatting in the coming couple years, as ICANN (the international regulator of Internet domain names) has received nearly two thousand applications for new top-level domains (TLDs), the part of a domain to the right of the last dot: e.g., .COM, .NET, .ORG.

Expiration of the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act Will Have Little Impact
This post comes to us from myShortTrack: Now that the shutdown has passed, and the next 'fiscal cliff' is still a little ways away, the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act of 2007 is back in the news. The Act is once again set to expire at the end of this year, after being extended last year. And once again, people are starting to make a really big deal about its expiration. As I explained last year, it's all a waste of breath. It doesn't really matter if it expires. People are lining up predicting both its extension and its demise. On the demise side, there is the $1.3 billion/year in uncollected revenues, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office. On the extension side, people point to the $1.3 billion/year tax 'increase' of not extending it and claim that it will destroy the short sale market and borrower participation. Here's a short (less than two minutes) video describing the reality of the expiration of the Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act. Let us know if you think it helps make things clearer, and if it's helpful to your sellers and owners facing foreclosure or pursuing a short sale.

Online Oversight
Guest contributor G.M. Filisko of REALTOR®Mag says: Odds are that some of your sales associates are online at this very moment. Maybe they're updating their Facebook status. Or uploading a blog post. Or retooling their Web site. But what if they're doing something that creates liability for your brokerage? Brokers are right to be concerned about the online presence of their agents. It's up to you to develop a policy for your office that details online activities that are acceptable and unacceptable from a business standpoint­—and to make sure associates know they're accountable. Policy? What Policy? If you haven't already created guidelines for your associates' online behavior, you're in good company. "I'd say that 5 percent of brokers, at most, have policies," estimates Nobu Hata, Chicago-based director of digital engagement at the National Association of REALTORS®. "Most policies I've seen have been at larger brokerages. They have counsel who've recommended they enact a policy, or they have a big enough cadre of sales associates that someone's already gotten them in trouble." It's not that brokers aren't paying attention to the risks, Hata says. Many are. But they don't want to tighten the reins so much that sales associates balk—and end up leaving. But, as any defense attorney will tell you, a written policy is wise. "Every broker should have one, whether the broker has two or 200 salespeople," Hata says. "Sales associates do a lot of things online on behalf of their brokers, whether it's marketing listings or performing client care, and there's so much gray area." A written policy reduces the chance for misunderstandings.

Legal Traps in Social Media: What Every Business Owner Should Know
As of October 2012, there were over one billion active users on Facebook. Although the stock of Facebook has experienced a roller-coaster ride, which has mostly been on the first steep downhill part of the track, the slide probably says little about the future of Facebook and social media. Technology and innovation behind social media are experiencing a rapid rate of change, and the law usually lags, but an understanding of legal issues is important to avoid liability. Here's what business owners need to know to avoid legal traps in social media. User vs. provider On a simplistic level, there are two ways to approach social media from a legal perspective. One is from the perspective of the user and the other is from the perspective of the provider of social media. Bloggers and users of social media need to be concerned about liability for what they are posting, and providers of social media portals—including businesses—need to be concerned about potential liability for simply making the social media vehicle available. Original content or else When posting content on social media, or in any other environment, there are some basic rules to follow. All content should be original to the person (or company) posting, or there should be a license to post the content. Original works, including text, graphics and photos, are protectable under copyright law. Except in limited circumstances, the owner must grant permission to use or post the content; failure to obtain permission constitutes infringement. Granting attribution, or identifying the owner of the content, is not sufficient for compliance with copyright law. Although it is easy to rationalize that no damages could possibly flow from a blog or other post, statutory damages of up to $150,000 in the case of willful infringement are available.

Your Real Estate Website is Illegal
It is November, that time of year when you need to schedule the update on your copyright to © 2013 before January 1. But there is more that you should be considering--a revision to the way that you handle the terms of use. Most real estate websites place their terms of use conspicuously deep down in the footer of their website, along with their privacy policy. This is the way that it has been done for years. However, a court case involving Amazon.com subsidiary Zappos just changed all of that. In the Zappos case, 24 million consumer email addresses where stolen by hackers. Zappos went to arbitration and settled the case. The judge in the case threw out the arbitrated settlement for two reasons. The Zappos terms of use indicate that they can change the agreement at any time. The judge ruled that this is inherently unfair, and previous courts have invalidated contracts on those grounds before. The consumer did not explicitly agree to the Privacy Policy or Terms of Use.

Midyear Recap: RPPSI, Listings on Social Media, and the Franchisor IDX Policy (and Why I Will Opt In)
Fair warning: Long post ahead… Three days of mid-May were spent in Washington, D.C. attending the 2011 REALTOR® Midyear Legislative Meetings and Trade Expo (more commonly referred to as simply “Midyear”). This promised to be a lively event as there were some major issues on the table: RPPSI, “Franchisor IDX” and “Display of listings via RSS and Social Media.” Thoughts on RPPSI “RPPSI” the “REALTOR® Party Political Survival Initiative” was hotly debated prior to Midyear. The overwhelming sentiment online seemed to me to be against this initiative and its $40 dues increase. Today, however, the NAR Board of Directors “overwhelmingly approved” the initiative and dues increase. This is exactly what I thought would happen when I wrote, Op-Ed: The REALTOR® Party. NAR Proposes the REALTOR® Party Political Survival Initiative.

Are You Managing Your Risk?
"Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions." ~ Mignon McLaughlin Privacy and information security rules and regulations are changing monthly. Do you know what your legal obligations are to your customers, prospects, associates, vendors, and employees? Have you fully covered your assets? Today's maze of enacted laws, pending legislation and best management practices related to privacy and information security issues is enough to make even the most savvy business person's head spin. Did you know that there are different laws being proposed nationwide and in Congress on these subjects almost daily? Are you tracking them to make sure you know if and how they will affect your business, and adapting your business model accordingly? Do you know what you need to do to comply with the ones that have been recently enacted to reduce your legal exposure and risk?

Smarter Agent Sues 13 Real Estate Technology Vendors!
Smarter Agent, provider of mobile search services for the real estate industry filed a law suit on March 26, 2010 in Delaware District Court to sue the following companies for infringement of their patent 35:271. Boopsie Inc. Classified Ventures LLC Hotpads Inc. IDX Inc. Move Inc. RealSelect Inc. Primedia Inc. Consumer Source Inc. Trulia Inc. Zillow Inc. ZipRealty Inc. Multifamily Technology Solutions Inc. dba MyNewPlace TRSoft Inc. dba Planetre

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Larson/Sobotka is a consulting firm and a law firm specializing in offering services to the real estate industry. Specifically they focus their service offerings on technology vendors to the real estate industry, MLS service providers, Associations of REALTORS® (State, Local, National), and real estate brokers. Their legal practices focus on a variety of dimensions throughout the real estate industry including ecommerce, databases, Web branding issues, and rule-making for online communities. Larson/Sobotka supported RE Technology in the development of many of its business documents. Legal services also extend to providing copyright, trademark, Internet/computer and technology licensing counsel.