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Hacker Group Anonymous Picks a Popular Symbol

The "hacktivist" group Anonymous has been a bane for many financial companies, but a boon for one company's financials.

Its choice of a Guy Fawkes mask as its logo has been profitable for Time Warner, which owns the rights to the image from its 2006 film "V for Vendetta," The New York Times reported Monday. Every time a member of Anonymous buys a mask to participate in a protest or some other function, Time Warner gets paid.

Fawkes was a 17th-century Englishman who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and his image, as it was used in the film, is "a symbol of what Anonymous stands for, of fighting evil governments," one protester told the Times. The unnamed protester wore the mask during a demonstration this month against the decision of San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit to shut down mobile phone service in its system. The service shut-down was meant to disrupt a separate protest.

"With the help of Anonymous, the mask has become one of the most popular disguises and -— in a small way — has added to the $28 billion in revenue Time Warner accumulated last year," the article said.

The mask far outsells most others, its manufacturer says. Over 100,000 are sold a year, compared to about 5,000 for other masks, an executive for the manufacturer, Rubie's Costume in New York, told the Times.

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