Help Fight Data Theft
Piracy hurts you, your company - CoStar
Piracy – stealing online information -- is an illegal act. Using CoStar’s services without a license or exceeding the scope of permitted use is piracy. Know the rules for using our commercial real estate services and assist CoStar by reporting uses of pirated content, theft and copyright infringement.
Top 10 Piracy Abuses of CoStar Services
Using CoStar’s services without a license or exceeding the scope of permitted use amounts to piracy. Here’s a top 10 list of prohibited acts
- Sharing your CoStar User ID and password.
- Logging into a CoStar service using someone else’s CoStar User ID and password.
- Creating a “CoStar terminal”-a shared computer used by several people to access CoStar via one individual’s CoStar passcodes.
- Holding a CoStar User ID under your own name but working for a separate unlicensed company with commercial real estate information needs.
- Supporting your need for commercial real estate information by having a licensed CoStar user email or fax CoStar reports to you rather than becoming a licensed user.
- Downloading information or photos from CoStar into an internal database without written permission from CoStar.
- Using, copying or distributing any part of the CoStar service in connection with creating or maintaining another information service or product.
- Posting a CoStar photo to an Internet listing service.
- Cancelling a CoStar service but retaining CoStar content for use after termination of your license.
- Reselling any portion of a CoStar service.
You are the Real Victim of Piracy
Anyone illegally using CoStar services to compete against you can cost you deals, reduce CoStar’s ability to enhance services and potentially increase CoStar’s subscription fee.
Left unchecked, piracy threatens the job security of CoStar’s researchers, photographers and software programmers – professionals working for you, your clients and those that market their listings with CoStar free-of-charge.
Piracy Punishment
The penalties for piracy are high. In civil cases, infringers can be liable for CoStar’s lost profits, the infringer’s profits, or statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed (plus CoStar’s attorney fees). In addition, certain types of piracy can be criminally prosecuted. Play it safe. Don’t risk piracy’s costly and embarrassing consequences.
Please click on the Best Practices link to the right for ways to steer clear of liability risks.
Reporting Piracy
When you help CoStar bring or refer successful legal action against those involved in data theft or illegal sharing of passcodes that generates at least $10,000 in payments to CoStar, you can earn a sizable reward. CoStar is prepared to share the greater of $10,000 or 25% of any net monetary payment to CoStar resulting from prosecution (subject to our Reward Program Terms and Conditions (Subject to Reward Program Terms and Conditions).
Filing a piracy report is easy:
- Download a report form that can be emailed or faxed to us.
- Call us at 888-886-3982.
When you submit a report, CoStar will not publicly disclose your identity without your consent, except when requested by a government or law enforcement agency, or subject to a valid discovery request or court subpoena. If you choose to make an anonymous report, please follow the instructions provided in the report form.