Guy Fawkes masks, immortalized in the movie "V for Vendetta", have become a global symbol of protest and anonymity through the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring.

"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.

At the top of Reddit today is somewhat ironic image of this icon of rebellion being mass-produced in a factory in Sao Goncalo near Rio de Janeiro.

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

There's no doubt that the masks, which transform identifiable citizens into anonymous dissidents, irk authorities. 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.

Notably, the mask has become a symbol of the amorphous hacktivist group Anonymous.

And Lloyd approves of the online jesters using the mask.

"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.

An 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.

A woman cleans Guy Fawkes masks, used by many demonstrators in protests around the world and in the recent wave of demonstrations in Brazil, at a factory assembly line in Sao Goncalo near Rio de Janeiro June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

A woman cleans Guy Fawkes masks, used by many demonstrators in protests around the world and in the recent wave of demonstrations in Brazil, at a factory assembly line in Sao Goncalo near Rio de Janeiro on June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

A Guy Fawkes mask (C), used by many demonstrators in protests around the world and in the recent wave of demonstrations in Brazil, hangs on a wall next to various other masks of Brazilian politicians, at a factory in Sao Goncalo near Rio de Janeiro on June 28, 2013. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Here they are in action during a labor strike in Portugal:

Demonstrators with Guy Fawkes masks march to the Portuguese parliament in Lisbon June 27, 2013. Portuguese trade unions staged a one-day general strike on Thursday against relentless austerity which has deepened the worst economic slump since the 1970s, but support outside the public transport sector was patchy and the government seemed unlikely to back down. REUTERS/Hugo Correia

And in Turkey:

Anti-government protesters demonstrate in Ankara June 4, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

And Brazil:

And Occupy:

A protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask carries an Occupy Wall Street placard in front of the Reichstag building during an Occupy Berlin protest denouncing current banking and financial industry practices in Berlin November 12, 2011. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski

Another look at the Brazilian factory: