The Austin Board of REALTORS and eRealty.com have reached a settlement in their year-old dispute over the use of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) information in Austin.

The litigation began when ABoR filed suit against eRealty for infringement of the copyright to the MLS data. MLS is a compilation of information regarding residential real estate for sale in the Austin area. At the time, it was a violation of MLS rules to publish the information for the use of non-ABoR members. ERealty posted the data on its website.

An injunction was filed by eRealty to prevent AboR from terminating eRealty's access to the MLS until the case was adjudicated.

However, everything changed in May 2000 when the National Association of Realtors (NAR) officially adopted an Internet Data Display (IDD) Policy that required local chapters such as ABoR to amend their policies to allow members to post the listings on their websites, making the dispute moot. .

A joint statement issued by the parties states: “The issues in this lawsuit were resolved to the satisfaction of both Plaintiff and Defendant.”

Published: February 26, 2001

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