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It's Guy Fawkes Day — Here's How Those Masks Make It From Factories To Protesters Around The World

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Right now people are gathering all over the world for the Million Mask March.
"The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny — and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way," British graphic novel artist David Lloyd, the man who created the original image of the mask for a comic strip written by Alan Moore, told BBC.

The global event, organized by the amorphous hacker group Anonymous, is sure to irk authorities as Guy Fawkes masks transform identifiable citizens into anonymous dissidents.

"My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolize that they stand for individualism — V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system," Lloyd told BBC.

Canada recently passed a law that bans the wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly and carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

Reuters notes that these masks in Brazil are manufactured for sale to stores specializing in costumes.

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Guy fawkesAn interesting note is that Time Warner, one of the largest media companies in the world and parent of Warner Brothers, owns the rights to the image and is paid a licensing fee with the sale of each mask.

In 2011 purported members of Anonymous told CNN that activists were  ordering masks mass-produced and shipped in from Asia so that Time Warner didn't receive the loyalties.  

guy fawkesHere they are in Bahrain:guy fawkesAnd Brazil:brazilUp to Mexico: guy fawkesAt labor protests in Portugal: guy fawkesAnd in Turkey:turkeyFawkes even made it out to the capital of Syria:syria rebels guy fawkesAnd, of course, Occupy Wall Street:guy fawkesAnother look at the Brazilian factory:guy fawkes

SEE ALSO: How Guy Fawkes Inadvertently Created The Word 'Guy'

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