Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

mcmansionhell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 388 posts

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#271

Post by cookiecaper »

hluska wrote: post #177
ihuman wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your comment, she also posted the letter from Zillow to her twitter https://twitter.com/mcmansionhell/status/879429709251137537

Zillow pulled out the fucking CFAA??? That's just plain dirty.

It's pretty conventional in these types of cases. I've received a similar C&D and read several others and they all invoke the CFAA. It seems boilerplate for C&D related to online activities.

The CFAA makes it unlawful to exceed authorized access to any protected computer system (essentially, any computer in the United States). If someone claims that you've violated their ToS, they almost always also claim that by so doing, you've also violated the CFAA, since your access "exceeded authorization" as granted within the ToS, which they'll claim you've agreed to.

Now your breach of contract is upgraded to a federal crime. Better hope you don't make the wrong MegaCorp mad.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#272

Post by mschaef »

prklmn wrote: post #240
mschaef wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is this so different Benchmarks are at least attempting to be objective. Also, there's a difference between mocking a company's product and mocking a house that is 1) an individual's home 2) their largest investment and 3) is likely, these days, to represent a significant financial liability. I don't like McMansions much myself, but I can absolutely sympathize with people that want an affordable way to get more…

> an affordable way to get more space for their family Did you see the asking prices before the content was taken down? I don't remember any of the houses being affordable in any regard > vortex of debt It takes a special person to sympathize with someone living so far beyond their means that they take a $1 million (my average price estimate from the website) mortgage that they can't actually afford

> It takes a special person to sympathize with someone living so far beyond their means that they take a $1 million (my average price estimate from the website) mortgage that they can't actually afford

They'll suffer enough without help. The world is difficult enough without pushing people down because it's funny or a way to 'improve the quality of architecture' or whatever.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#273

Post by cookiecaper »

Amorymeltzer wrote: post #58

The Washington Post ran an article/video combo today[1] about Kate and McMansion Hell, and while Kate herself didn't mention Zillow the article itself did a few times. I imagine this is what prompted the legal threat. It's an entertaining video if you have five minutes. Also of note: Kate's twitter posts from this morning also indicate she has received threatening emails following the video[2], which is sadly not sur…

You're probably right about the WaPo article being the trigger. I received a C&D from a massive company shortly after a mainstream news outlet covered a competitor that was engaging in shady tactics. As the entire sector depended on non-copyrightable factual data that was only available from the large company's site, everyone was shut down by a wave of C&Ds that hit over a span of 3 days.

Makes me wonder if PR firms are complicit with large companies looking to shut down small players. They feed a story upstream to someone and then the company can pursue legal action without looking petty or like they're picking on the little guy, providing some defense against the negative PR of "punching down" while still allowing them to accomplish their goal of harassing/silencing defenseless bloggers and entrepreneurs.

May also help them if they get to the stage of assessing damages, since they can say "This was not just some obscure thing in the corner that nobody noticed; they got national press exposure."

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#275

Post by hluska »

cookiecaper wrote: post #271
hluska wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zillow pulled out the fucking CFAA??? That's just plain dirty.

It's pretty conventional in these types of cases. I've received a similar C&D and read several others and they all invoke the CFAA. It seems boilerplate for C&D related to online activities. The CFAA makes it unlawful to exceed authorized access to any protected computer system (essentially, any computer in the United States). If someone claims that you've violated their ToS, they almost always also claim that by so…

I should have given a little more context. Take a look at the statement that Zillow gave the Verge:

“Zillow has a legal obligation to honor the agreements we make with our listing providers about how photos can be used,” Zillow tells The Verge in a statement. “We are asking this blogger to take down the photos that are protected by copyright rules, but we did not demand she shut down her blog and hope she can find a way to continue her work.”

The public face of Zillow says they hope she can find a way to continue her work, yet the corporate counsel pulls out a piece of legislation that could see her spending the rest of her twenties in a jail cell. That's dirty pool...

Point in your favour though, the Verge didn't even mention the CFAA in their coverage of this. So, I would agree that it's common, but just because something is common doesn't make it right.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#276

Post by SnowingXIV »

So this made things even more difficult for me. I'm looking to buy a new house for around 300-500K. And I'd hate for it to be one of these, I don't need it to be some unique hipster snowflake because I need it to be marketable and sell well in the Midwest so most families are buying pretty standard craftsman style houses. Not the Silicon Valley entire house is a massive window. Main concern is getting money back or more and not doing some massive risk which is what this blog might be advocating.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#277

Post by Applejinx »

careersuicide wrote: post #211
averagewall wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's OK to be mean to people because of the socioeconomic class they belong to? They're all humans just like each other. I bet half of poorer people would opt to design their own house in an ugly way if they had the chance. They just don't have the chance. Some of them certainly try hard though: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/543809723727647414

> It's OK to be mean to people because of the socioeconomic class they belong to? No, see the first sentence where I say I generally reject the premise of the whole concept of punching up and down (I think there is such a thing as bad tactics). My point was, however, that if you're gonna use that framework, perhaps one percenters buying ugly houses aren't exactly a sympathetic group. Even more importantly, the OP mis…

Also, the blogger skewers the exact pretensions of this class with hilarious skill and deftness. I can't tell you how many times I've seen some very motel-like painting or elaborately framed print up there captioned 'An Art', and that always makes me grin: it criticises a very real and troubling class tendency to commoditize and stupefy art, and to see this tendency called out for mockery pleases me.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#278

Post by Cerium »

atonse wrote: post #4
matttproud wrote: post #2

McMansion Hell is exactly the shock therapy the United States needs. Someone lend this blogger a hand!

Never heard of it before now. :( I bet it was enlightening.

The blog was great. I learned a huge amount about architecture by reading it. I also laughed my ass off for hours. It was very funny, but had lots of explanation of architecture that provided the right words to google.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#279

Post by gammarator »

strictnein wrote: post #35
corpMaverick wrote: post #10

I really enjoy using Zillow. But this is wrong. Not happy.

Give Redfin a shot, if you're just into browsing homes for sale. Better search and UI, in my opinion.

I like Estately better than both of those. Fresher interface and the data updates faster.
Post reply on HN