Foot power of the masses harnessed

The foot falls of the masses in heavily traveled pedestrian areas may be a new source of electrical power generation .In Tokyo a small scale test has been done on the practicality of generating electricity from the heavy foot traffic at subway stations.Here in Vermont we have no daily concentrated mass movement of people large enough to produce power but maybe something could be accomplished with cows or some tourist related movement.I see it now a ,Vermont piezo state inititive. Please step here .
One of the busiest subway stations in Tokyo has installed hatsudenyuka floors which generate power through the use of piezeoelectric elements that convert pressure and vibration of foot stepping crowds onto electricity to power the stations lights. Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials (notably crystals and some ceramics) to generate an electrical charge.This is caused by applied pressure(foot falls )to thin 0.4mm floor tiles of piezo elements covered with mats located throughout the station to generate the power .
At Victoria Underground station in London engineers have calculated that 34,000 travelers passing through every hour could power 6,500 light bulbs. David Webb, a structural engineer at the consultant Scott Wilson, which is in discussions with Network Rail and with retail firms to install the devices, said:

“It’s just picking up on the fact that all structures move a bit. This technology says, okay, we can do something useful with that energy.”

A question of power
Perhaps jumping ahead slightly facetiously with a question; if the power generated in this way is to be sold do the pedestrians get credit/compensation of some type for their freely given energy? The energy of public traffic at a public location is being “harvested”. Does the public own the right to the energy of their footfalls?

The trial test at Tokyo Station, which started in 2006, was put on hold in March to analyze data, and early indications are that the energy harvesting system could be rolled out more widely. East Railway said it now hopes to eventually use the flooring as a clean source of supplementary power for other station technologies such as automatic ticket barriers and display panels.
Piezoelectricity applications have now been trialed at a number of locations around the world, including stations and nightclub dance floors, and while large-scale systems are yet be launched, wider roll out of the technology is being planned.The experiment is being run by subway operator East Japan Railway Co, Tokyo's Keio University and public research body New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization.