No Appeal of Ruling Backing Real Estate Site

The state has decided not to appeal a federal court ruling that found that a California real estate law violated the 1st Amendment.

Judge Morrison C. England Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Sacramento ruled last month that the Department of Real Estate was wrong to insist that a website had to obtain a broker’s license in order to publish paid property listings.

The court found that ForSaleByOwner.com acted essentially the same as newspapers and other publications that publish similar ads. Those periodicals are exempt from being licensed by the state.

Tom Pool, a spokesman for the Department of Real Estate, said Friday that the state would not appeal the ruling, and that ForSaleByOwner.com would be allowed the same exemption as newspapers.

The case was being closely watched by the real estate industry, which has seen many of its traditional ways of doing business challenged by upstart firms exploiting consumers’ mushrooming use of the Internet.

ForSaleByOwner.com charges customers an upfront fee to list their properties on its website, which also publishes other real estate-related information but does not act as a broker in transactions.