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Polish Politicians Don Guy Fawkes/Anonymous Masks To Protest ACTA Signing

Politics

from the isn't-that-infringing? dept

Thu, Jan 26th 2012 02:04pm -

There’s been lots of talk today about how various EU governments are agreeing to sign ACTA (which still needs to be ratified by the EU Parliament). It’s gotten the most attention in Poland, where there were mass protests — but the government there still signed. Of course, not everyone in the Polish government agreed. Amazingly, officials from the Palikot’s Movement held up the famed Guy Fawkes/Anonymous masks in Parliament to protest the vote:

Of course, we should note that, from the picture, it sure looks like those masks are “counterfeit” copies of the official Guy Fawkes mask that Time Warner holds the rights to. Good thing ACTA is coming into force to stop such blatant “counterfeiting,” huh?

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Comments on “Polish Politicians Don Guy Fawkes/Anonymous Masks To Protest ACTA Signing”

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92 Comments
Violated (profile) says:

Awesome

This is a photo that is sure to grace the Internet for years to come.

The nature of this photo has been called into doubt though when some claim that these are not people who oppose ACTA but ones who only want the popularity.

I don’t really care on that answer when it will make much anti-ACTA news whatever their true intentions.

TMWaH (profile) says:

“It’s gotten the most attention in Poland, where there were mass protests — but the government there still signed.”

To be fair, it’s not necessarily going to stay signed. The opposition party is demanding a referendum, which could seriously undermine the movement. A contact in Poland says that the earlier comments about the government “not submitting to blackmail” are not being well-received by the public, and that it’s just the majority’s attempt to save face. Poland still has a fighting chance.

Ati15 says:

Re: Proud of poilticians?

Leader of these politicians originally voted for ACTA and had no objections about this treaty. Only now when they see mass protests on the streets and in the internet they’re seeking cheap popularity! Nothing really to be proud of 🙁 unfortunately. It just works like that in polish parliament that you can say one thing then do something completly opposite and still face no consequences at all. (Usually You can even count on popularity increase among the public – like this time).

Violated (profile) says:

Re: Re: Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

The original Guido Fawkes did not wear a mark. He also lived between April 13, 1570 and January 31, 1606; before he was hanged, drawn and quartered, with his then bits burnt on a bonfire.

Even the original writing of “V for Vendetta” had no mask when it is purely a creation of the movie. Most interestingly this prop is protected by the law and when you buy the original your money goes to the “big media” we hate.

Then let us not forget this is the usual Hollywood dropping turds on foreign culture and tradition. One Guy Fawkes was the terrorist of the day, wanting to replace the Monarchy, and his death has been celebrated for over 400 years.

This would be like if we British made a character representing Osama Bin Laden in a Mickey Mouse mask and then celebrating the 9/11 destruction of the twin towers as victory over the bad Bush Government! Insane or what?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

The mask is definitely NOT a creation of the movie. In the comic his face was disfigured by the experiments and/or fire he caused at Larkhill Resettlement camp. He wears the mask throughout. Its even on the cover.

http://www.amazon.com/V-Vendetta-Alan-Moore/dp/1401207928/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327621023&sr=1-1

The mask is also in the preliminary stuff David Lloyd sketched up, which is at the back of this hardback I have.

Violated (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

The publication date of that book is 2005. IMDB says the movie was released in 2005 so the book was released to match the movie.

If you want to see the original story then you need to see the UK Warrior magazines published between 1982 and 1985.

Trust me and the author. The mask came from the movie.

The Groove Tiger (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

Interesting. Every bit of info I found about the 80’s comic contradicts what you’re saying.

http://www.thehoodedsage.com/2011/11/v-for-vendetta/

“What the movie never shows from the original story is that after V dies, Evey dons the Guy Fawkes mask and actually becomes the masked vigilante herself. Evey becomes V. Evey becomes the Idea?the Symbol. It?s not enough to sit around with concepts. Eventually, you have to move beyond concepts and actually become the energy of what the concepts mean. and That ? is the very moment that you actually get it.”

If he wore no mask, how could Evey (comics) wear it later?

http://postdesk.com/blog/an-interview-with-the-british-man-who-designed-the-anonymous-v-for-vendetta-mask-on-what-he-thinks-of-how-its-being-used

Apparently, the illustrator of the comics designed a mask for the comics, which the comic guy character wore, according to him. Is he wrong?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

The use of this mask, in this context, does not involve V or Guy Fawkes directly in any way. It was a symbol of Epic Fail Guy (EFG) from 4chan that was used in the Chanology protests of The Church of Scientology to imply that Scientology is “epic fail”. This is where it gained the real life use of it as the symbol of protest. Anything involving Alan Moore’s work or Mr. 17th-Century is purely a red herring.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

Yeah, dude, that book was compiled from the UK Warrior magazines from 1982 to 1985. It wasn’t a new book created to match the movie.

I don’t think you know what you are talking about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_(comics)

teron says:

Re: Re: Re:4 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

Let’s just put this all to bed right now….

someone else posted this link: http://www.thehoodedsage.com/2011/11/v-for-vendetta/ BUT only decided to copy/paste the LAST part of it, HERE is the first part…
(Note my caps below)

“V for Vendetta originally appeared in 1982 in the black-and-white British comic book, Warrior, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd. The story was about anarchy in the UK, set in a near-future, post-nuclear police state, where political prisoners had been rounded up into concentration camps and used for experiments. An escaped prisoner and anarchist revolutionary WEARING A GUY FAWKES MASK, known only as ?V?…..”

YES there has ALWAYS been a mask, nothing new, nothing altered, T.W. MAY hold rights on the “official” plastic masks that are made and sold, but they CAN NOT attempt to trademark or patent the actual ‘look’ as the actual look is GUY FAWKES’S LIKENESS.

So….

TL:DR:

The mask was there since day 1 of the org 80’s graphic novel & Time Warner can’t sure for someone using the likeness of an 1800’s REAL PERSON 😉

-Teron-

Peter says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

The Problem of course is that Guy Fawkes didn’t stand up against a repressive regime, but instead fought for the re-introduction of a repressive religion and regime.

Guy Fawkes fought under the name Guido Fawkes for the oppressive Spanish Government, who attempted to stamp the Dutch Revolt into the ground. He then tried to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne.

This Guy Fawkes was hardly a freedom loving figure, but more a henchman of a foreign power, or as Lenin called them, a Useful Idiot.

Now the interesting question is whether all those Anonymous persons want to become the 21st century’s Useful Idiots for Hollywood?

Violated (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Why

I heard the original author say himself that the mask is the sole creation of the movie. He was discussing the Anonymous aspect then.

When making the movie they wanted to move away from the general terrorist anarchist type character and to give him a “guy fawkes” iconic appearance and a Robin Hood type personality.

It would no surprise that any further written works publish after the movie release would be adjusted to match the movie, mask and all, seeing that it did so well.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Why

“It would no surprise that any further written works publish after the movie release would be adjusted to match the movie, mask and all, seeing that it did so well.”

Please, do the world a favor and have even a slight clue as to what you are talking about when you say stuff like this. The comic was NOT “adjusted” to match the movie vis-a-vis the mask. That was a component of the original comic since its inception. All one has to do is find any back issue and read even a couple of pages to prove your ridiculous assertion completely false.

Violated (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

I have been checking what I heard and I believe it must have been the man who made the mask for the movie and not the original author.

So unlike I incorrectly stated the original comics did involve a mask. However when the movie was made they created a different mask and it is that mask which they now sell cheaper copies of and which all profit goes to Time Warner.

The ultimate irony. Those who fight big media fund big media.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:3 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

The profits go to Warner though since I believe they bought the rights to it and own it or have a deal for the merch or something like that.

But for me the real irony is that although Time Warner is making a buck, that buck will cost them dearly.

Loss of public respect translates to loss of power and eventually money.

indieThing says:

Re: Re: Re:4 Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

I’d be surprised if Warner could claim IP rights to this here in the UK, as the mask is pretty much a slight variation on the original masks you could buy around November, going back at least to the early ’70s.

We used to buy them to put on our Guy Fawkes dummies, which were used by kids to make a few quid by displaying them on the pavements and asking for ‘a penny for the Guy’. Come November the 5th they’d then be thrown on the bonfire and burnt! Great times 🙂

Evey H. says:

Re: Re: Re: Why "counterfeit" it? Surely every man sitting there can afford original one, righ?

May I point out a slight difference between blowing up a building representing the oppressive authorities and killing thousands of innocent people? I grew up in Poland. One of the books we HAD to read and discuss at school talked about children and young people blowing up German trains during the war and spilling acid on women who dated Germans. Funny, they told us that’s patriotism, that this is how you fight for your freedom when the authorities give you no other choice. I’m not saying we should start blowing things up, what’s the point? But we have to fight against oppression. Poland just got out of one Orwellian nightmare and we do not mean to allow another one to happen. We are lucky enough today to have legal and bloodless ways to do so, all we need is solidarity among free-minded people.

Anonymous Coward says:

perhaps the real motive behind these bills/laws isn’t to prevent counterfeit goods sales (haha), isn’t to prevent copyright infringement (duh) but really to stop people from being able to organise demonstrations using the internet. just think about how unsuccessful the various uprisings last year would have been without it, if the then governments had been able to shut it down.

Holding the Book says:

You nobs, if you open that book and look two pages in, the copyright date of the front cover is 1990 to DC Comics. They did not change the graphic novel to insert masks everywhere over the original art; that’s just stupid.

What everyone so far has failed to notice is that DC Comics is a division of Warner Bros and Time Warner. So chicken or egg, it all belongs to them anyway.

TMWaH (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Keep in mind that the fight isn’t over yet. The Polish citizenry is raising a major stink, the opposition party is demanding a referendum, and dissent is spreading across Europe.

Nobody expected an instant victory, particularly when the battle is on an international scale. Right now, Poland is setting a precedent, showing that the common man won’t cave in to corporate pressure and negative press. Will they win? Maybe. But even if they don’t, they’re standing up for what they believe in. And are you really so petty as to mock them for that?

k23 says:

Poland in protest

the protest took place in all bigger cities in Poland. Pepole just simply went on the streets as we do not like when the goverment is doing something behind our back.

the link shows you what was happening in only one city:

http://krakow.gazeta.pl/krakow/1,44425,11032507,Protest_przeciwko_ACTA_w_Krakowie__FOTO_i_WIDEO_.html

and it is not over. next protests are planned for today and tomorrow. the prime minister started to understand that they make a misstake…

Pawel says:

Here’s Poland – we, young people do not stop our protest. The cities are occupied. Don’t believe to the media – we do protest all the time and we prepare an revolution, an revolution which began in our minds, will be now shown on the streets. Currently in the whole country there are over 700.000 of us on the streets and we won’t return our homes without vicotry, we will not stop!!! Let this be the beginning of the global Internet identity reloveution! No ACTA, No NWO, No 1984!!! We are not products, we are not things, we are people and we deserve our freedom and will of choice! We never step back, we never surrender!

Wojciech (user link) says:

Democracy = Dictature

Hello world!

You must know, that our world is controlled since centuries. World governments, especially USA aren’t real democratic government. YOU USA PEOPLE HAVE THE BIGGEST PROPAGANDA ON THE WORLD. The propaganda is based on your good hearts, based on our white people culture developed since more than 2000 years. They destroying the our civilization, the most powerful civilization. Now, we’re falling down due socialism systems – whole XX century. Now, in the Europe – there’s next socialism system. And we fallen down again. We have to stop this, before they destroy planet with soldiers, new technology weapons such nuclear bomb, etc. Bush, Obama were only puppets. The real power, reign are behind curtain. The main media like CNN, Hollywood, MTV are tools to make a propaganda. You must know, that freemasonry control us and they probably control or WILL TRY TO CONTROL ANONYMOUS MOVEMENT, so beware! In the Poland we had the same history, believe me, we experienced so much. Don’t trust your government – they are bad “people”, very bad – more than you will even could think…

dave says:

i come from poland and i tell you guys that this is element on political game in which small party want to gain some electorat (through happenings like that). the protest against ACTA starts in Internet on portals like a wykop.pl when free, aware surfers mobilisate people on social portals and took on the streets. don’t let politicize this citizens protest.

btw. sry for my english, i hope you understood what i was trying to say

greetings from Poland

Anonymous Coward says:

People!
Janusz Palikot was a very active activist PO – Tusk’s party, the ruling now in Poland. He is not so, what would you see him. He also took what he could and just lied and insulted “the other” as Tusk.
Now assumes that mask, because he wants to show that is so cool and solidarity with the protesters. But in reality is just propaganda, which aims to show Palikot in a better light. He just about to win the electorate PO, who will not know for whom to vote in subsequent elections.
Today, he joined the demonstrators in Warsaw, but Polish fans driven out of him.
Do not be fooled!
Read the opinions of reliable web sites, for example: http://www.niezalezna.pl http://www.salon24.pl

Polish girl

Evey Hammond says:

don't believe them

I agree with previous comments. I come from Poland, I took part in the protests, and there is one thing I can tell you – there is no political party in Poland that can be trusted. The Civic Platform is scared now and quite a few of them admitted that they didn’t really know what ACTA was about. Law and Justice and Palikot voted for ACTA before and the Law and Justice still votes for it in the European Parliament. Besides, I don’t think they really know what these masks mean – Palikot hates all catholics, yet he wears a mask of one, lol. Hypocrites. All of them. Remember, remember…

belle (user link) says:

Guy Fawkes Masks and Anonymous shirts

The best places are:

http://www.AnonymousTees.com
http://www.AnonyMasks.com
http://www.vstoreonline.com

They all ship worldwide, accept Paypal, cheap prices for quality masks and shirts. They have Guy Fawkes Masks, Anonymous + Guy Fawkes and disobey tees / tshirts, fawkes costumes, anonymous computer accessories and more

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