Can you copyright a revolution?

By Aussiegirl

Rundown of the recent scandal involving the ownership of the trademarks and copyrights to the symbols of the Orange Revolution. Scandalous -- these profits should be turned over to the people in some way, not make a millionaire of the President's son.

Gulf Times Newspaper - Qatar, Gulf and World News - Europe/World:

CONTRroversy has enveloped the son of Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko for a second time in a week, amid reports that the 19-year-old owned the copyright to the lucrative trademarks of last year’s “orange revolution”.

The new scandal erupted as the legal chief of Yushchenko’s campaign tried to put to rest a controversy that flared last week, after local media reported that Yushchenko’s eldest son, Andriy, appeared to be living beyond his declared means.
“Andriy Yushchenko has author’s rights to all political brands that were used during the ‘orange revolution’,” Mykola Katerynchuk was quoted as saying during an Internet conference.

“That’s for those who are trying to count up the revenues of Andriy Yushchenko’s budget,” he said.
But his remarks unleashed a new furore, as observers wondered why proceeds from sales of paraphernalia from a peaceful “people’s revolution” would go toward funding expensive cars and hefty restaurant bills of its leader’s son.

“On what basis does Andriy Yushchenko own the author’s rights on the ‘orange revolution’s’ political brands,” Iryna Bekeshkina, a respected sociologist, wrote in the muck-raking Internet newspaper Ukrainska Pravda (Ukraine’s Truth), which supported Yushchenko’s presidential bid.
The cheerful symbol of Yushchenko’s campaign – the word “Tak!” (Yes!) written across a horseshoe on an orange background – was ubiquitous during the “orange revolution” that held the world’s headlines for weeks last year as hundreds of thousands of protesters massed in Kiev to protest fraud during a presidential election.
Ever since, it has also driven a lively commercial trade – including T-shirts, coffee mugs, even cans purported to contain air from Kiev’s Independence Square that was the revolution’s epicentre.

Although no exact figures are available on the size of such sales, experts say they could reach millions of dollars.
“The market is estimated to be in the millions of dollars,” the Kommersant daily quoted Andriy Burlayenko, an analyst from a Ukrainian consulting company, as saying, with several others echoing the view.

Yushchenko’s spokesman denied that the president’s family had received any revenues from the brisk sales of “orange revolution” paraphernalia.
“All of the trademarks were registered by the family with the goal of protecting them” from misuse during the election campaign, Yushchenko’s spokesman, Iryna Gerashchenko, told AFP.

“I emphasise that there was never any intent to use them commercially and the family has never received any revenues” from the sales, she said.
But information that Andriy Yushchenko was the owner of the revolutionary trademarks touched a sore nerve in Ukraine after last week’s revelations that the university student drives a BMW reportedly worth well over 100,000 euros, talks on a cell phone that’s said to cost at least 4,000 euros, and frequents posh restaurants and clubs where he spends hundreds of dollars a night.
“Nobody wants another scandal and interminable discussions,” Bekeshkina wrote. “But any revenue from such ‘privatisation of author’s rights’ is too brazen.”