The chemical laboratory where Edison's teams worked on chemicals that were used in batteries, phonograph records and other inventions, at The Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who is best known for his work in the field of electricity. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. He is credited with the development of many important devices and technologies, including the light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. Edison was a highly successful and influential inventor, with more than 1,000 patents to his name. He was also a pioneering entrepreneur, founding companies such as General Electric and the Edison Electric Light Company. "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

In 2015, documentary photographer Carol Highsmith received a letter from Getty Images accusing her of copyright infringement for featuring one of her own photographs on her own website. It demanded payment of $120. This was how Highsmith came to learn that stock photo agencies Getty and Alamy had been sending similar threat letters and charging fees to users of her images, which she had donated to the Library of Congress for use by the general public at no charge. In 2016, Highsmith has filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against both Alamy and Getty stating “gross misuse” of 18,755 of her photographs. “The defendants [Getty Images] have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people,” the complaint reads. “[They] are not only unlawfully charging licensing fees … but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner.” According to the lawsuit, Getty and Alamy, on their websites, have been selling licenses for thousands of Highsmith’s photographs, many without her name attached to them and stamped with “false watermarks.” (more: http://hyperallergic.com/314079/photographer-files-1-billion-suit-against-getty-for-licensing-her-public-domain-images/)