Terms of Use

1. Who we are and what you are agreeing to

kenyonminnesota.com (the “Site” or the “Work”) is a work of art created and published by its private authors (“we,” “us,” “our”). Its subject is the town of Kenyon, Minnesota; its medium is prose, data, maps, drawings, photographs, code and design; its form is an independent community reference. It is not owned, operated, sponsored, endorsed or reviewed by the City of Kenyon, Goodhue County, the State of Minnesota or any government body, and no page on the Site is an official government publication. Official city business, including forms, payments, permits and public notices, is conducted through the City of Kenyon at 709 2nd Street, Kenyon, MN 55946, 507-789-6415, cityofkenyon.gov.

By accessing or using the Site you agree to these Terms of Use (“Terms”) and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Site. These Terms are a binding agreement between you and us. We may change them by posting a revised version with a new effective date; your continued use after that date is acceptance of the change.

2. The Work is art: artistic independence and the public record

The Site is a work of art: an original composition of research, writing, data, drawings and design about one town, made by its authors as an act of expression. Like a portrait, a landscape or a documentary, it depicts real people, places, buildings, businesses and public life as its authors see them from the record. We alone decide what to include, how to render it, what to correct, what to keep and what to remove. That artistic and editorial judgment is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and by Article I, Section 3 of the Minnesota Constitution, and it is not subject to approval by any person, business or government office depicted in the Work. The subject of a portrait does not hold a veto over the portrait.

Artistic expression is protected whether or not it carries a particular message, Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, 515 U.S. 557, 569 (1995), and pictures, drawings, maps and prose are unquestionably shielded, Kaplan v. California, 413 U.S. 115, 119–20 (1973). The arrangement of public records into charts, tables, maps, summaries and pages is the medium of this Work, and the choices of what to show and how are its expression.

Much of the Site reproduces, summarizes and analyzes government data that Minnesota law makes public. Under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Minn. Stat. ch. 13, government data are presumed public unless a statute classifies them otherwise (Minn. Stat. § 13.03, subd. 1), and any person may inspect and copy public data without stating a reason (§ 13.03, subd. 3). Property ownership, assessed values, tax amounts, sales recorded on certificates of real estate value, council minutes, packets, contracts, budgets, business licenses, campaign and board appointments, nonprofit filings with the Internal Revenue Service, and the names of people who speak or are named in public meetings are public data. Our republication of public data does not change its classification and creates no obligation on our part to withhold it.

Minnesota recognizes a fair-report privilege for accurate reports of official records and proceedings, including city council meetings, whether or not the underlying statements later prove untrue. Moreno v. Crookston Times Printing Co., 610 N.W.2d 321 (Minn. 2000). Truth is a complete defense to defamation, and substantial truth suffices. Opinion, analysis and characterization that disclose the facts on which they rest are protected expression. We publish in reliance on these principles, and we expect them to be honored.

Claims that arise from our communications on matters of public concern are subject to Minnesota’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, Minn. Stat. ch. 554, which provides for expedited dismissal of such claims and an award of costs and attorney fees to the party whose expression was targeted. Anyone considering a claim against the Site should read that chapter first.

3. Corrections, updates and removal requests

We want the Site to be right. If a fact is wrong, a listing is out of date or a person or business is misidentified, write to team@kenyonminnesota.com with the page address, the correction and its source. We correct verified errors promptly and never charge for a correction, an update or a removal.

We consider every removal request in good faith. We will remove or amend content that is inaccurate, that reproduces data a statute classifies as not public (for example, data that is private under Minn. Stat. § 13.02, subd. 12, and reached us by mistake), that creates a demonstrable safety risk, or that infringes a copyright under the procedure in Section 8. We generally do not remove accurate information drawn from public records, public proceedings, published sources or a business’s own public materials, because doing so would make the public record less complete for everyone else. A request that a page be “approved,” “taken down until reviewed” or “sent for sign-off before publication” is not a correction; it is a request to edit the Work, and the authors alone edit the Work. We will tell you what we decided and why.

4. Art is not advice; verify with the source

The Work depicts; it does not advise. Everything on the Site, including summaries of city ordinances and fees, tax and mortgage estimators, zoning maps, property records, council summaries, budget analyses, veterans’ benefits pages and business listings, is general information compiled for the convenience of readers. It is not legal, tax, accounting, financial, real-estate, engineering, medical or benefits advice, it is not a substitute for the official text of any statute, ordinance, rule or record, and it does not create any professional or fiduciary relationship. Calculators produce illustrations from stated assumptions, not quotes. Records are as of the date shown and may have changed. Before you rely on anything here to make a decision, verify it with the City of Kenyon, Goodhue County, the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, the business concerned, or a licensed professional.

5. Forms, applications and electronic signatures

The Site offers form tools that help you prepare applications and requests, produce completed documents, and in some cases forward a submission to the city department named on the form. Using a tool on the Site is not the same as filing with the City of Kenyon. The City decides what it accepts, when a filing is complete, whether a fee is due and how it is paid, and whether a deadline is met; we are not the City’s agent and cannot bind it. If a deadline or fee matters, confirm receipt with City Hall directly. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you submit, and you agree not to submit anything false, misleading or unlawful.

Where a form asks you to type your name as a signature, you agree that your typed name, together with the date, time and the record of your submission, is your electronic signature and is intended to have the same effect as a handwritten signature as between you and us, consistent with the Minnesota Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, Minn. Stat. ch. 325L, and the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7001 et seq. Whether a government office accepts an electronic signature on a particular document is that office’s decision.

6. Listings are portraits: names, logos and photographs

Each business, organization and place page is a portrait of its subject, composed from the City of Kenyon’s business directory, public map and review services, government filings, published sources and the businesses’ own websites and social pages, and, where an owner has confirmed or supplied details, from the owner. Business names, logos, photographs and descriptions appear for the purpose of identifying and describing the business, which is a nominative use of trademarks, and an expressive use of them within a work of art of the kind courts protect when the mark is not used as the artist’s own brand, Rogers v. Grimaldi, 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989), as limited by Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, 599 U.S. 140 (2023). Where copyright is concerned, the use is for reference, commentary and the transformative purpose of depicting the town, which we believe is fair under 17 U.S.C. § 107, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569 (1994). A portrait does not imply endorsement by its subject, and a subject’s appearance in the Work does not imply our endorsement of it. Ratings and review counts belong to the service that published them and are shown as of the date noted.

Owners may ask us to correct or add details, hours, photographs, a logo or a link, at no charge. When you supply material for your listing you grant the license in Section 7 and you confirm you have the right to do so. We may edit supplied material for length, accuracy, tone and design, and we may decline to include material that is promotional, misleading or inconsistent with the Work.

7. Contributions to the Work; third-party content

When you send us anything for inclusion in the Work, including corrections, descriptions, photographs, documents, comments and answers to forms that are meant to be published, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable license to reproduce, edit, adapt, publish, display and distribute it on the Site and in connection with the Site, in any medium, with or without attribution. You represent that you own the material or have the rights needed to grant that license, that it is accurate, and that it does not infringe anyone’s rights or violate any law. You keep whatever ownership you have.

The Site is an interactive computer service. To the extent any content on the Site is provided by a person other than us, we are not its publisher or speaker, 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1), and we may remove or restrict access to any such content in good faith at any time, 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(2). We do not pre-screen third-party material and are not liable for it.

8. Copyright in the Work; attribution and integrity; permitted use

The Work is an original work of authorship fixed in a tangible medium, 17 U.S.C. § 102(a), comprising literary works, pictorial and graphic works, and a compilation. Its text, summaries, analyses, charts, maps, drawings, floor plans, photographs we took, page designs, source code and the selection, coordination and arrangement of its data are protected by copyright and are owned by its authors, who hold the exclusive rights to reproduce it, prepare derivative works from it, distribute it and display it, 17 U.S.C. § 106. All rights are reserved. Copyright in a compilation extends to the original contribution of its author and not to the underlying facts, 17 U.S.C. § 103(b); Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991). We claim no ownership of government records, statutes, or facts as such, and nothing here restricts your right to obtain public data from the government that holds it.

You may link to any page, quote brief passages with attribution to kenyonminnesota.com and a link, and print or save pages for personal, non-commercial reference. When you quote or reproduce any part of the Work you agree to credit its authors as kenyonminnesota.com and not to alter, crop, recolor or recontextualize it in a way that distorts its meaning; attribution and integrity are conditions of the permission granted here. You may not, without our written permission: copy, mirror, frame or republish substantial parts of the Site; use automated tools to download, scrape, crawl or harvest content or data from the Site in bulk or in a manner that burdens it, beyond the access allowed by our robots.txt; compile the Site’s content into a dataset, product, directory or model for training or resale; remove notices or attributions; or represent the Site’s work as your own. Unauthorized access to, or interference with, the Site and its servers may violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030, and Minn. Stat. § 609.891, and will be pursued.

Copyright complaints. If you believe material on the Site infringes a copyright you own or control, send a notice to our copyright agent at team@kenyonminnesota.com containing the elements required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3): identification of the copyrighted work; identification of the material and its location on the Site; your name, address, telephone number and email; a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent or the law; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for the owner; and your physical or electronic signature. We respond to valid notices, may forward them to the person who supplied the material, accept counter-notices under § 512(g), and terminate repeat infringers. Knowingly misrepresenting that material is infringing exposes you to liability under § 512(f).

9. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Site or anything on it: to harass, threaten, stalk, intimidate or defame any person, or to contact any person named on the Site for those purposes; to impersonate the City of Kenyon, any official, any business, or us; to send unsolicited commercial messages to addresses obtained from the Site in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7701 et seq., or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227; to attempt to gain access to any non-public part of the Site or its systems; to introduce malicious code; to interfere with any other person’s use; or for any purpose that is unlawful under federal, Minnesota or local law. We may suspend or block any access, at our discretion and without notice, to protect the Site or others.

10. Third-party sites and services

The Site links to and embeds services operated by others, including cityofkenyon.gov, Goodhue County, the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, map, video and font services, listing portals and the websites of businesses described on the Site. Those services have their own terms and privacy practices, we do not control them, and we are not responsible for their content, availability or conduct. A link is a reference, not an endorsement.

11. Disclaimer of warranties

THE WORK IS ART, NOT A SERVICE, AND MAKES NO PROMISES. THE SITE AND EVERYTHING ON IT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT OR UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OPERATION. PUBLIC RECORDS CONTAIN ERRORS, CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND MAY BE TRANSCRIBED OR SUMMARIZED IMPERFECTLY. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY SUBMISSION MADE THROUGH THE SITE WILL BE RECEIVED, ACCEPTED OR ACTED ON BY ANY GOVERNMENT OFFICE. YOU USE THE SITE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

12. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE AND OUR OWNERS, EDITORS, CONTRIBUTORS, HOSTS AND SUPPLIERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OPPORTUNITY OR REPUTATION, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SITE, ITS CONTENT, ANY FORM OR TOOL, ANY LINKED SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SITE WILL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). THE SITE IS FREE; THIS ALLOCATION OF RISK IS AN ESSENTIAL BASIS OF OUR AGREEMENT TO PROVIDE IT.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations; in those places our liability is limited to the smallest amount the law permits.

13. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless us and our owners, editors, contributors, hosts and suppliers from and against all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney fees, arising out of or related to your use of the Site, anything you submit to it, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or of any right of another person. We may assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification, and you agree to cooperate.

14. Notice before suit; governing law; venue; jury and class waivers; time limit

Notice and cure. Before starting any proceeding against us you agree to send a written description of the claim and the relief sought to team@kenyonminnesota.com and to allow thirty (30) days for a response. Most disputes about the Site are corrections, and corrections are free and fast.

Governing law. These Terms and any dispute arising out of or related to the Site are governed by the laws of the State of Minnesota and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and by the constitutional protections for speech and the press described in Section 2.

Venue. Any action arising out of or related to the Site or these Terms must be brought exclusively in the state courts of Goodhue County, Minnesota, or the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and waive any objection to venue or forum.

Jury and class waivers. To the extent permitted by law, you and we each knowingly and voluntarily waive any right to a jury trial, and you agree to bring claims only in your individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective or representative proceeding.

Time limit. Any claim arising out of or related to the Site must be filed within one (1) year after it accrues, or it is permanently barred.

Fees. In any proceeding arising out of or related to the Site or these Terms, the prevailing party is entitled to recover its reasonable attorney fees and costs, in addition to any award available under Minn. Stat. ch. 554 or other law.

15. General

These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about the Site and supersede any prior understanding. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the rest will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them to a successor publisher of the Site. Sections 2, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 survive any termination. Headings are for convenience only. You consent to receive notices from us electronically at any address you have given us or by posting on the Site. Nothing in these Terms limits any right we have under law, including the rights described in Section 2, and nothing waives any defense or privilege available to an artist, author or publisher.

16. Contact

Corrections, listing updates, removal requests, copyright notices and legal notices: team@kenyonminnesota.com. We answer within a few business days.

Effective September 17, 2026. Earlier versions are available on request.