A Cautionary Tale About Sharing Passcode

Court Order Requires Two Companies
to Pay CoStar $100,000 for Passcode Sharing

Bethesda-based CoStar Group has announced that a Maryland federal court recently entered an order requiring Laser Marketing, a marketing firm doing business under the name Atkinson Hunt, and Resource Realty, both of southern New Jersey, to pay CoStar $100,000 to settle charges that the two firms shared a CoStar passcode in order to gain unauthorized access to CoStar’s real estate information database.

The court also entered a permanent injunction restraining Atkinson Hunt and Resource Realty from engaging or assisting in any future unauthorized use of CoStar services.

The court found that Resource Realty provided Atkinson Hunt with a CoStar passcode that had been assigned to an approved subscriber at Resource Realty. Using fraud detection technology, CoStar determined that the passcode assigned to Resource Realty was used illegally and repeatedly from the offices of Atkinson Hunt to access CoStar’s information services.

“The thousands of honest subscribers who invest in CoStar’s service for the competitive advantage it offers expect CoStar to provide the most complete and highest quality information service we can at the lowest cost possible. When some users illegally resell or share CoStar passcodes with unauthorized users, they are really stealing from CoStar’s legitimate subscribers,” said Jonathan Coleman, CoStar Group’s general counsel.

Recently, the company also announced a $1 million judgment to settle a lawsuit against Centers & Malls, a Lake Forest, Ill., limited liability company, for infringing on CoStar’s copyrighted commercial real estate information.

Thanks to The Business Monthly at www.bizmonthly.com for this story