United States District Court, For the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division United States of America vs. National Association of Realtors, Civil Action No.: 05 C 5140 Judgment Dated 11-18-2008 From NAR's: Frequently Asked Questions on the VOW Policy Q 9.1 What's the difference between a VOW and an IDX site? An IDX site is considered advertising — and listing brokers' consent is required before another broker may advertise his or her listing. A VOW (Virtural Office Website) is considered on-line brokerage. Listing brokers' consent is not required to display on a VOW any listing otherwise available to MLS participants and subscribers for Internet display. Sellers retain the ability to withhold their properties from Internet display or to withhold the display of their property's address from Internet display. A website that offers online MLS listing searching capability that does not comply with the detailed requirements of the VOW policy is, by definition, and IDX site. Q 9.2 Does the settlement agreement affect the IDX policy? No. Everyone's Real Estate Marketplace opinion (this is not legal advise): Follow the IDX policy. A listing broker's consent is required before you may advertise any other broker's listings. When you provide a public search on your website you are advertising other broker's listings. As long as you have the listing broker's consent, then you can have a public search on your own web page, which may display the listing broker's advertised listings. TERMS OF USE When you log-in to "Everyone's Real Estate Marketplace", Terms of use will include: "Listing brokers give their consent to advertise the listing information."