According to Kenneth R.Harney of Realty Times: "A hot new controversy has broken out in the real estate valuation arena: Appraisers charge that a major property database company is pilfering key pieces of information about houses when they submit appraisal reports online."
Of course, as appraisers, we know that this topic may be *hot* but it's certainly not NEW!
What is relatively new is that AMCs (Appraisal Management Companies) are begining to admit to the practice.
The Appraisal Scoop reported back in November (click here) on FNC's position paper “Appraisal Report Data: Not Intellectual Property, Not Protected by Copyright,” by FNC’s Chief Legal Officer Neil Olson.
The FNC report cites legal precedent to argue that appraisers cannot guard the data in their reports through copyright protection, despite some recent efforts, since the courts have established that one cannot copyright facts.
Appraiser, Patrick Turner, founder and head of P.E. Turner Appraisals disagrees with FNC's stand on what "copyrightable facts" are in the Realty Times article.
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