Who Profits From Those Anonymous Guy Fawkes Masks? Time-Warner

A protester in a Guy Fawkes mask at a rally in San Francisco on Aug. 15, 2011. Time Warner earns a licensing fee on the sale of the masks. [Source: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/NYT]

Even if you have the best of idealistic intentions, it’s hard not to get sucked up in The System. According to Nick Bilton in the NYT:

Anonymous, the hacker group, has jostled with the Iranian government and the Church of Scientology and has briefly shut down the Web sites of Visa, MasterCard and other global corporations.

When members appear in public to protest censorship and what they view as corruption, they don a plastic mask of Guy Fawkes, the 17th-century Englishman who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

Stark white, with blushed pink cheeks, a wide grin and a thin black mustache and goatee, the mask resonates with the hackers because it was worn by a rogue anarchist challenging an authoritarian government in “V for Vendetta,” the movie produced in 2006 by Warner Brothers.

What few people seem to know, though, 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. Read more