23 November 2012

RUSSIA: Pussy Rioter Gets Solitary...For Protection; Madonna Makes $ Off Pussy Brand As Band Loses Control.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/22/uk-russia-pussyriot-brand-idUKBRE8AL0GH20121122

     Many are now making money off the Pussy Riot band brand and its anti-Putin popularity...but allegedly not with the imprisoned members' consent.
     Band members say they are fighting the illegal use of their logo...to sell goods.
     Some experts claim the rebels' brand is worth at least $2-3 million per year.
     But a now freed group member...Yekaterina Samutevich...says they will never let the brand be registered.
     "We've always said our brand would never be commercial. To an extent it was created to fight commercialism.'
     She said she knew nothing of a $19.95 Pussy T-shirt that Madonna was selling at her concerts.
     However...because the band has not registered the brand...it has no control over its use.
    AND...One of 2 still jailed members of the punk collective Pussy Riot...has been put into solitary confinement on her own request...'for her protection'...after 'a conflict'...with other inmates.
      Maria Alyokhina, 24...was moved to a one person cell...reportedly after tensions with other prisoners over religion.
     She is serving the rest of 2-year sentence in a remote gulag prison for performing a 45 second anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral.