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Days after Move and CoStar Group filed their latest filings, attorneys for former Realtor.com editor James Kaminsky filed a new statement outlining Kaminsky’s recollection of events and saying he stands by CoStar’s request to expedite discovery.
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“I am not performing any work at CoStar that competes with Move’s News and Insights Group, nor am I assisting anyone at CoStar in doing so,” the document reads. “I am currently on administrative leave. I do not have access to CoStar’s computer systems. I did no work for CoStar other than assisting in responding to Move’s lawsuit.
In a 36-page statement of support, Kaminsky detailed the circumstances of his “unexpected” firing from Move, his attempts to delete “financial, personal and email accounts” before returning Move-owned equipment and email accounts to the company. Medical Information” and why he did it. Move said the documents accessed included trade secrets. The former editor also explained his decision to work for CoStar Group, saying it was a good opportunity in an “extremely tight” media job market.
“My new job at CoStar is completely different from my previous job at Move. I readily disclosed my new job and its responsibilities to several people at Move; I am proud of it,” the filing reads. “I never thought Move would have any problem with this and certainly never tried to hide it from Move.”
“Given all the Move personnel I met with and described my new role to, I am shocked and surprised that Move notified the court and claimed in the media that I was working to establish a news division at CoStar to compete with The News. Move is responsible for the Management and Insights division,” it continued. “That’s not true.”
Kaminsky said Move notified him of the layoffs on Jan. 10, noting that his last day with the company was Jan. 12. Personal information, including his 2023 pay stubs, old W-2s and credit card information. He also downloaded recent performance reviews, Christmas gift cards from colleagues, photos of his new home and medical information for his two children with special needs.
Kaminsky said that after obtaining his personal information, he realized he needed to “remember the pinnacle moments of his 8.5-year career at Realtor.com,” so he added his personal email address to several News & Insights Google profile, Move is expected to close his work email address.
“There’s no secret here: I allowed myself access by inviting myself to them using my designated email, [redacted]the document reads. “In my experience at the company, we often see names in files that we didn’t expect – we just delete them. It’s not a very secure system.
“I can actually give permission to my personal email address [redacted], rather than a Move.com email address, to access the files suggested to me, which were and are not proprietary files of critical importance,” it added. “Of course, I didn’t expect anyone at Move to be concerned about my access to these files. In my opinion, these files did not contain highly sensitive information.
Kaminsky said documents at the center of Move’s accusations of stealing trade secrets include tables he created outlining his team’s salaries and bonuses, an ongoing list of Realtor.com news and insights, and a “2022 or 2023” presentation on audience and revenue projections. , and two additional documents containing passwords for third-party subscriptions, WordPress instructions, and staff contact numbers.
Kaminsky said he “briefly viewed” the document, which contained salary information to help him calculate appropriate salary requirements during his job search, and clicked on the document, which contained audience and revenue projections, but he Don’t know what it contains. However, after viewing it, he said it included an audience demo “[jogged] his memory of his previous work achievements”. He said he accessed both documents before starting his job at CoStar on March 11.
His next visit to files owned by Move was on May 31, when he needed help calculating the correct amount of tax withholding on his CoStar wages. When he searched for old pay stubs from forwarded emails from his Move email account, he found emails informing him of documents owned by Move, to which he added his personal address and opened the documents.
“I remember being surprised that I could still access the files and that the links still worked,” the document reads. “I clicked through the files to see what they were and satisfy some basic curiosity. These files were all relevant to me in CoStar’s job has nothing to do with it.
Kaminsky said he took a quick look at some of the documents, noting that some were hundreds of pages long. Kaminsky said that while he had access to the documents, he never used them in his work at CoStar and never shared them with colleagues or leadership at CoStar because his focus at CoStar was Manage a team that writes listing descriptions for high-end condos and co-ops.
“My job at Move is to manage a department in which we identify, write and publish news articles designed to drive traffic to the Realtor.com website, covering a wide range of economic and business issues related to residential real estate and more popular Cultural articles about celebrities and their homes,” the document reads. “This text is associated with listings on the website related to these buildings; it is not a stand-alone feature designed to drive traffic to the website.
“To my knowledge, CoStar does not currently track this portion of Homes.com traffic,” it continued. “I have never seen any statistics on viewer traffic and have never been asked to pay attention to growing internet traffic.”
Kaminsky said he reviewed a final document on June 9, and Move said it became aware of Kaminsky’s behavior that day. He said the document was titled “News and Insights Content Platform.” That link and several others are no longer active, he said.
“To be clear, I no longer have access to any of the four documents that Move claimed in its motion for preliminary injunction contained trade secret information. I did not print these documents, save them externally, or otherwise They are kept in my records,” the document reads. “I have never shared these records with anyone at CoStar or used them in any capacity in the course of my work at CoStar or in any way to compete with Move.”
“To demonstrate that I do not have access to any of the documents that Move alleges contain trade secrets, I have provided my work, personal computers and electronic devices to a forensic examiner, which I understand CoStar and my attorneys have used to determine the facts. The inspector was hired.
CoStar has placed Kaminsky on administrative leave as the Virginia-based company fights Move’s July 23 ex parte request to expedite an order without giving the other side time to object. order to prevent leakage of confidential information. Move said particularly sensitive documents should only be provided to Move’s legal counsel and CoStar Group’s outside counsel.
CoStar responded by requesting expedited discovery and rescheduling the preliminary injunction hearing from August 15 to September 19. and unredacted versions of the accompanying exhibits so that each party can file a “more comprehensive brief” before the preliminary injunction hearing.
CoStar’s leadership, including general counsel Gene Boxer, dismissed Move’s lawsuit as a “PR stunt” in a battle over the site’s traffic performance. Meanwhile, Realtor.com reserved its comment on the lawsuit, with a spokesperson saying the company does not file lawsuits ” lightly” and will ” litigate it in the courts rather than in the media.”
On Monday, a judge reviewed Move and CoStar’s ex parte requests. A ruling is expected soon.
Read Kaminsky’s statement below:
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