Talk about great timing! The World Wildlife Fund unveiled this new Earth Hour 2009 poster yesterday. See a larger version here. Created by "Obama Hope" artist Shepard Fairey, the ad would have gotten about zero publicity under normal circumstances. Except, of course, Fairey's in hot water with the Associated Press, which claims the artist infringed its copyright by using one of its photographs as the basis of the famous Obama image. So, Shep's Google hits are through the roof, and the WWF goes along for the ride. You can't blame the AP for wanting compensation—the dying newspaper industry's not exactly a reliable source of revenue these days. You can, however, blame Fairey for this somewhat ugly Earth Hour poster. No one else would likely want to claim it as their own. On March 28, you're supposed to turn your off your lights between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. to express concern about climate change. I'm hitting the light right now so I don't have to see that poster anymore.

—Posted by David Gianatasio