HouseLogic: Realtors® Beware of Copyright Infringement

HouseLogic for Realtors®

It's that time again - time to talk about copyright infringement and what is and isn't good practice.  With the recent push of the Realtor® Content Resource by HouseLogic, I've seen a lot of what I (and probably a few lawyers) would see as copyright infringement.  Even if it doesn't fall under "breaking the law," a lot of what I'm seeing is just plain bad practice.

If you haven't checked it out yet, HouseLogic is a consumer-oriented website focusing on homeownership.  I've spent quite a bit of time there and so far the content has been excellent in my eyes.  From home repair to finances, HouseLogic does a great job of educating buyers about their homes and the issues that come with ownership.

Cut and paste.  Cut and paste.

As an arm of the National Association of Realtors®, certain benefits to us, its members, are provided free of charge.  One of these benefits is the ability to reprint the articles for our own use.  Now we could argue over whether it's good or bad practice to use other writers' material on our blogs and other marketing materials, but let's just all pretend for a moment that there are times when a) you have writer's block or b) you find something that you just know you couldn't write any better.  Enter the Realtor® Content Resource side of HouseLogic.

With a plethora of articles covering so many topics, you're bound to find one in there that you think would benefit your readers and once you find it you're free to post it your blog.  Of course, as with all things, you have to follow the rules.  HouseLogic does have a reprint rights policy spelled out, but I'm seeing it violated time and time again.

If you're like me, you hate reading terms of service, policies, agreements, etc.  They're boring and usually full of a lot of legalese that will put you to sleep in a matter of minutes (unless you're a lawyer).  When you boil down the reprint rights policy, it's not really that difficult to follow.  I've taken the liberty of giving you a few tips to keep you out of hot water with NAR and HouseLogic.

1. Do not use any of the photos (or video) on the site.  Period.  End of story.  They are not owned by HouseLogic and are licensed from another company.  I'd be willing to bet this company is sniffing out their photos across the internet as I type this.
2. Do not change the text of the article.  You are allowed to modify the aesthetics of the words, but not the words themselves.  Change fonts or modify font sizes, but don't mess with the actual text.
3. Give credit for the articles.  If you simply cut and paste the article without a mention of the author or HouseLogic, you're in violation of the reprint rights policy.  HouseLogic clearly spells out that you must include the following: original title, the author's byline, the article as it originally appeared on HouseLogic (see number two), and a copyright notice that must read: "Visit Houselogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®."  You must also include a link back to the site (I would suggest linked the words "HouseLogic.com" in the copyright notice).
4. Do not reprint the news found on the site under "News and Activity" as this is licensed content from other sources.
5. If you plan on using more than twenty five articles a month, you must get permission from HouseLogic to do so.  If you're using twenty five articles a month on your blog, you should probably give up anyway - that's my opinion.

So there you have it folks, the basics of the HouseLogic reprint rights policy.  Avoid copyright infringement issues by following those simple rules and you'll be able to pull from a great new source when you're stuck for content.

P.S.  I wrote this after seeing so many violations of the reprint rights policy on so many blogs.  It drives me nuts, so if I can help one person understand the rules, I've done my job and perhaps saved my sanity.

photo courtesy of Steve Riley SEA

********UPDATE********

If you find yourself reading the comments, you will see that in my list of five things to know about the reprint rights policy, the first tip about use of photos came into question.  When I wrote this I was not considering the "get the code" option generated by HouseLogic and speaking specifically about wholesale cut and paste of the entire article (the HTML code only gives you a short blurb and then to read more, you must continue on to HouseLogic's site), I didn't consider the fact that the photos were appearing in the output of the HTML code that was generated. 

This caused some confusion over what I was saying and then eventually lead to several calls to NAR by commentors as well as some contact with Todd Carpenter (NAR's Social Media Manager) who forwarded the question to the HouseLogic team.  I have quoted the section of the reprint rights policy in comment #43 that started it all (and also give a ton of background on where the idea for this post came from).  As you can see in the comments, NAR has said that the use of the photos is okay (although I have not heard this directly, the sources that are quoting the phone calls they made are very reliable people who aren't known for just spouting off anything as law without knowing their facts).

I'm hoping that this might get HouseLogic to rewrite this small segment of the reprint rights policy as it would definitely help if it were more clear.  The conversation on the post "Comments Disabled." that I mentioned in my comment between myself, Alan May, and SarahGray Lamm is what kicked all this off and the person in question didn't use the photo in their post anyway.

Personally, I want people to copy my posts and spread them around the internet - with attribution of course!  Check out "Copyright and RErockstar.com" for more details on that.  I guess I'll have to write an official version of it that applies to ActiveRain only.

********FINAL UPDATE********

As noted in HouseLogic's comment the post as written is correct in its assessment of the reprint rights policy when copying HouseLogic material in its entirety.  If you use the Realtor® Content Resource and only use the "get the code" function, which leads readers back to the original article if they wish to read the entire thing, you are not violating any copyrights (even in regards to the photos) as long as you use the code without changing it.  Hope that clears up some of the prior confusion.