Minocqua Brewing Company removes post that violated newspaper’s copyright

As The Lakeland Times had demanded, the Minocqua Brewing Company has quietly removed from its Facebook page a post that republished an entire Times news article from this past spring, which The Times alleged violated its copyright protections.

After an attorney for The Times sent a letter to Kirk Bangstad, the owner of the Minocqua Brewing Company (MBC), the company replaced the infringing post with a link to the same article, which takes readers to a page where subscribers to the newspaper can access the content.

Times publisher Gregg Walker said the newspaper could not allow its intellectual property to be appropriated without consent, and he said that The Times would likewise defend its copyright protections in the future.

“The printing of an entire article went far beyond fair use of our material,” Walker said. “We report the news and create other content for our paying readers. We cannot allow others to distribute that content — outside of fair use — to a broader audience of their own without our permission. Mr. Bangstad neither asked for permission nor was he given it.”

In a letter to Frederick Melms, Bangstad’s attorney, Jennifer L. Gregor, an attorney with Godfrey & Kahn who represented The Times, had also asked that Bangstad refrain from future copyright violations.

“As you know, we represent Gregg Walker and his two newspapers, The Lakeland Times and The (Northwoods) River News,” Gregor wrote in the letter to Bangstad. “My partner, James Friedman, has previously corresponded with you about defamatory statements made by Mr. Bangstad. I write today about a copyright violation occurring on the Facebook feed for Minocqua Brewing Company, which we understand is owned and controlled by your client.”

Gregor referenced a Facebook post by MBC on Oct. 20, specifically a post in which MBC copied and re-published the entirety of a June 5 article published in The Lakeland Times.

The article focused on a new county health department policy at the time of naming businesses visited by people who has tested positive for COVID-19 if the department concluded the visit posed a risk of significant exposure to others, as well as criticism of that policy by the Wisconsin Tavern League.

Copying the complete article was a violation of copyright law, Gregor wrote.

“The Lakeland Times owns the copyright in this article and the wholesale copying of it constitutes copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501,” she wrote. “Remedies for copyright infringement can include injunctive relief, monetary damages, costs, and attorneys’ fees.”

Gregor demanded Bangstad take action to remedy the infringement.

“Accordingly, my clients demand that the infringing content be removed immediately and that Mr. Bangstad and the Minocqua Brewing Company refrain from any further infringements,” she wrote. “Please remind your client that while he is entitled to his opinions, he is not entitled to violate our client’s rights.”

The foundation of modern copyright law is actually found in the U.S. Constitution, in Article I Section 8, Clause 8, which states that the Congress shall have power “(t)o promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”