Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

But as someone who wants to one day buy a huge McMansion in Vegas just for personal gratification, fuck all of these self-righteous snobs.

>If she would likely lose in court [...] I don't see why you would feel sorry for someone in that situation.

A law's existence is not an automatic justification for its invocation. Copyright law is pretty draconian on its own, and automatically-accepted browsewrap/clickwrap Terms of Use generally constrict action even further, making almost anything a breach of contract. Fair use exists, but the standard is fairly high, and it is not really practical for a normal person to get it, especially since each use must be considered in isolation.

Other types of intellectual property would probably also be involved here, including an accusation of "trademark dilution", i.e., harming their mark's value by using it improperly. I haven't seen the C&D but it probably includes various other claims along these lines, all of which she would have to defend, which means big $$$ even if she did win (and if attorney's fees are eventually awarded, they will cover only a tiny fraction of the overall costs).

A large company with giant law firms seeking to punish individual authors for failure to unpublish unflattering blog posts should make you feel sorry, even if those giant law firms are able to contrive a case that shows the conduct was technically illegal. It's not hard to do, especially when there is such a massive resource differential.

In the real world where we're allowed to widen our perspective beyond the legal minutia, this is a blatant attempt to silence press that Zillow doesn't like. The fact that it is possible for big companies to do this to people should seriously frighten everyone.

>doing her a favor by sending a cease and desist instead of going straight to court

A C&D is part of the process. It's not mandatory, but my non-lawyer understanding is that it looks bad to file a suit in this type of case without first asking the defendant to cease and desist (that is, issuing a formal C&D).

Lawyers don't send a C&D to be nice. They do it because the court wants to see that the plaintiff a) sought non-legal remediation before filing a lawsuit and b) because plaintiffs have a responsibility to mitigate ongoing losses when they are able to do so.

The job of the lawyers is to maximize outcomes in favor of their clients, and that means crossing the ts and dotting the is. Failing to send a C&D leaves an opening for the defendant to try to soften your damage claim, pointing out that you did not attempt to mitigate the damage.

If Zillow actually had been damaged by this operation, they would continue the lawsuit after the would-be defendant ceased and desisted and try to recover the damages they suffered. Since this is just a tactic to pressure the other party into unpublishing their content via the legal strongarm, money won't be wasted on a lawsuit after the publisher has been bullied into submission.

IANAL

In many (not all, not most) cases, the builders locate the house in an area completely unsuited for the property. They'll find some low-cost home in an established neighborhood of 30-40 year-old ranch homes (for instance), then tear that house down (or maybe they'll buy two lots next to each other!), then build the monstrosity that towers over everything else in the neighborhood. They'll get variances and whatnot to build nearly up to every property line within fire-codes.

It becomes a nightmare for the rest of the property owners; usually their homes will decrease in value as a result, due to nobody wanting to purchase or live in their home with such a structure nearby. Of course, this may cause them to sell their property at a loss - perhaps to another developer who puts up another such McMansion...

There's such a thing, when you are building in an established neighborhood, to be a good neighbor and build something that fits in (both style and size) with the rest of the homes. Same if you modify the existing home; you don't want to go too crazy with style or structure, because this can devalue properties around you. It all comes down to whether you have any empathy for other people; whether you can place yourself in their shoes and say to yourself "if someone were doing this to a house near me, would it be a problem?"

Unfortunately, too many people that do this don't care, or can't empathise - or if they can, again - they don't care. They just want to build, and flip it for the cash. It's a grab, plain and simple. Rarely do the people who build these live in them, because that would put them at the ire of their (now ticked off) neighbors.