The Arizona Association of REALTORS (AAR) has issued DotLoop a “Notice of Cancellation” today with concerns of protections from “improper use” of AAR forms.

This come off the heels of a story on Inman News; Dotloop probes prominent industry player for identity of alleged hacker.

The Inman story is fascinating. On one hand Dotloop is pissed that someone outed them on the use of unlicensed forms. Which they have since corrected. But it doesn’t end there. Now it seems they are looking for the identity of the person/company that hacked (according to the title of the Inman article) their system.

I have to say I agree with Dotloop on this one. While the circumstance are somewhat ironic, it is in Dotloop’s best interest to find out who has behind this attack(?) and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

And here’s where it gets real interesting. Apparently the hacker (leaker?) used the account to demonstrate to the California Association of REALTORS (CAR) and others about the unauthorized use of forms. Which I mentioned earlier Dotloop has since corrected. So you have to ask yourself who would benefit from outing Dotloop? The answer to me is pretty simple, a competitor. If you start going down that rabbit hole then you come up with this scenario. A Dotloop competitor met with CAR and others and as a result of that meeting the competitor forced Dotloop out of the market. Doesn’t sound too pretty from a legal perspective does it?

I hope I’m wrong about this. I hope that it wasn’t a Dotloop competitor that participated in the hacking and distribution of this information. That’s just plain wrong. And two wrongs don’t make a right.

That being said it doesn’t put CAR is good light.

Exhibit A: CAR met with Dotloop competitor
Exhibit B: Due to the results of that meeting CAR forced Dotloop out of market.
Exhibit C: Dotloop begins to lose business (AAR) in part due to these actions.

Sounds like Dotloop might have grounds for a lawsuit against CAR. And if that happens you might have a guess at the settlement.

CAR licenses its forms to Dotloop. Or in other words, “Checkmate.” Dotloop wins.

It makes me think that this was the whole reason for this lawsuit in the first place.

Fucking brilliant.