Right or Wrong?

I ran into a situation yesterday that I thought was interesting, also disturbing.

A person in my Keller Williams real estate office, that I shall call Spud, looked in the MLS and noticed that a listing that he previously had, was gotten by another agent, that I shall call Gladys,  from another office, right after the listing had expired. This is annoying enough, especially after asking the seller to lower his price many times and  he does it now with the new agent.

But lest I degress, Gladys used all of Spud's marketing pictures of the house with the new listing. Now, Spud was taken back, because at Keller Williams, we take new pictures of our new listings. Sometimes we take new pictures for a renewal of the listing and if we used another agent's pictures or verbiage, it would arouse an instant discussion.

Well,Spud called Gladys and after some preliminary chit-chat , Spud asked Gladys not to use his pictures.After hanging up, it seems that  Gladys thought about it , and asked her boss and the company attorney, if she had done anything wrong. Supposedly, the answer was that if the pictures weren't copy write, Gladys could use the pictures. Cut and dry? Black and white? I don't think so.

This opens the door as to how far  the less artistic, the less talented, and the lazy, can go to ride on the shoulders of the people who have pride in what they do and what they hope to accomplish by taking their own pictures, or whatever else they  do to become successful in these challenging times.

After Spud calms done, he will do what he has always done. He will have a bourbon and water, he will be respected by his peers, he will carry on in his own fashion.  Even if he is one of those dreaded Boston Red Sox fans.