On July 30, 2025, CoStar Group filed a federal lawsuit in New York alleging that Zillow has been displaying at least 46,979 CoStar-owned photos—many still bearing CoStar watermarks—across Zillow’s rental network and syndication partners, including Redfin and Realtor.com. CoStar calls it “willful, mass infringement,” and says the images have been shown hundreds of thousands of times.
CoStar’s complaint argues that Zillow used the photos to bolster its rental listings business and then amplified the use through syndication deals that made Zillow the sole provider of certain multifamily listings on Redfin and Realtor.com. Reuters reports the suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages that could exceed $1 billion. (Zillow hadn’t commented at the time of early coverage.)
This isn’t the first high-profile fight over listing imagery. In the VHT v. Zillow litigation, a jury in 2017 found Zillow directly infringed thousands of photos (with damages later reduced on post-trial motions and subsequent appeals), underscoring how complex real estate image licensing can be once photos move through MLS feeds and third-party portals.
Important note: The CoStar allegations are just that—allegations. The court will decide what actually happened. Still, the case is a timely reminder for brokerages, property managers, and marketers to understand exactly what rights they have to the photos they use. Coverage from industry outlets has highlighted the role syndication deals may play in distributing images beyond their original licenses.
Why this matters to you
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Legal exposure travels with the image. If you publish a photo you don’t have rights to—on your site, social channels, print, or ads—you could face takedowns, bills for retroactive licensing, or worse. Large platforms can usually defend themselves; smaller teams often can’t.
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Syndication multiplies risk. Even if you obtained an image from a “trusted” feed, that doesn’t guarantee your usage is covered if the underlying rights were restricted.
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Clarity beats complexity. Every extra middleman (photographer → editing vendor → MLS → portal → partner) adds ambiguity about who can do what, where, and for how long.
The HomeJab Difference: Clear Photo Rights, No Headaches
At HomeJab, we’ve built our service so you don’t have to worry about photo ownership and licensing. Here’s how we keep it simple and safe:
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Straightforward rights for our customers. When you order with HomeJab, you receive the broad usage rights you need to market your listings and your brand—MLS, portal syndication, brokerage and agent websites, print, social media, email, ads, and presentations—without surprise relicensing fees or takedown drama later.
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Upstream agreements with our photographers. Our photographers agree to terms that allow HomeJab to provide those rights to you. That means you’re not stuck tracing back through multiple parties to prove usage.
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Designed for the real world. Our clients regularly use images across MLS systems, portal destinations, and social ad platforms. Our licensing is built to support that reality so you can promote your properties confidently.
If you’re a marketing leader or brokerage ops manager and want the exact language for your compliance file, we’re happy to share our standard rights summary and add it to your vendor docs.
Bottom line
The CoStar-Zillow case will unfold over months (or years), but the lesson today is clear: know your rights before you hit “publish.” With HomeJab, your team gets the usage rights you need up front, so you can focus on selling and leasing, not sorting out image claims.
If you’d like a copy of HomeJab’s standard rights summary for your records, or want us to review your current media workflow for risk, reach out and we’ll get you set up.
Sources: CoStar’s press release and investor site (filed July 30, 2025), Reuters coverage of the filing and requested damages, and industry reporting from Inman, RealEstateNews, and GeekWire; historical context from the VHT v. Zillow case summaries. Business Wire, investors.costargroup.com, Reuters, InmanRealEstateNews.com, GeekWireLoeb
