Feb 10
Google is getting into the energy metering game and I for one, can’t wait. Will Atlantic City Electric get on the bandwagon and issue smart meters?
Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and we believe consumers have a right to detailed information about their home electricity use. We’re tackling the challenge on several fronts, from policy advocacy to developing consumer tools, and even investing in smart grid companies. We’ve been participating in the dialogue in Washington, DC and with public agencies in the U.S. and other parts of the world to advocate for investment in the building of a “smart grid,” to bring our 1950s-era electricity grid into the digital age. Specifically, to provide both consumers and utilities with real-time energy information, homes must be equipped with advanced energy meters called “smart meters.” There are currently about 40 million smart meters in use worldwide, with plans to add another 100 million in the next few years.
Read on.
Feb 07
Mannie Garcia/ Shepard Fairey
One of the original 350 iconic “Hope” portraits of America’s 44th President by artist Shepard Fairey hangs in The National Gallery in Washington. D.C., and another recently sold at a charity auction for more than $200,000. But the portrait is also generating some controversy.
A segment on NFR’s All Things Considered on 5 February 2009 notes:
The Associated Press is alleging copyright infringement for an image of Barack Obama created by street artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey’s lawyers say the image is protected under fair-use provisions.
Margaret Esquenet, an intellectual-property lawyer with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, a Washington, D.C., law firm, says several factors must be examined in the fair-use defense.
“The artist here would have a good argument that the photograph is factual; it’s of a real person at a real event in a news context,” Esquenet tells NPR’s Melissa Block. “It doesn’t appear that the photographer spent time posing or arranging the lighting or arranging the background … that would give it the creative elements that you’d normally see for a photograph.”