Z
illow has removed almost 47,000 photos from its listings after CoStar sued the company for using the competitor’s watermarked images to enhance rentals and distribute them through partner sites. The move looks like a defensive pause that often follows major litigation, rather than an admission of fault. It recalls the CoStar‑CREXi case, where a court found CREXi had systematically copied and cropped thousands of CoStar images under an offshore “copy‑and‑crop” policy, raising questions about platform accountability. Is Zillow pulling the pictures because it must, or because it has long possessed the power to do so? The timing suggests a proactive stance. If true, this could make intellectual‑property stewardship a competitive edge for MLS platforms, brokers, and aggregators, turning compliance from a checkbox into a strategic advantage amid billions‑dollar litigation risk.