Fansub

After anime companies pulled out of the United States in 1982,[14] there were no longer any legal or moral forces to discourage fans from copying and distributing tapes among themselves. From the late 1970s until the late 1980s, clubs began expanding to have chapters in other cities and grew to become of national and international scales. As the fandom grew, fans begun to experience ideological conflicts such as whether to keep the fandom niche or not. The visual quality of tapes began to degrade as fans made copies of copies; by the early 1980s some C/FO members reported tapes in their 15th to 20th generation that were extremely poor quality. In the mid to late 1980s, fans began to make booklets containing the translated dialogue for entire films (typically $2–3 to cover costs) and anime-focused magazines.^[3]

Despite numerous attempts, any efforts to convince US companies to license Japanese animation failed, with the exception of a handful of companies that were intent on "carving up" series to rewrite them into children's cartoons. Sean Leonard states that entertainment executives at the time mistakenly believed that anime were, like Western cartoons, predominantly aimed at young children; furthermore, Japanese animated dramas and such were much too violent and complex in plot for children. Leonard states that the most notorious example was the translation of

Hye-Kyung Lee, a lecturer at King's College London, states that anime fansubbers embody the general characteristics of fans described by John Fiske: fansubbers are motivated by a strong affection for anime, devotion to sharing it with other fans, a sense of community interaction with their viewers, a desire to work collaboratively in a group, and a strong desire to support the local animation industry by promoting anime culture and widening anime's accessibility. Lee describes fansubbers as involved in productive activities that enhance their knowledge of anime, improve their skills, and develop a final product.^[17] The goal of the first anime club, Cartoon Fantasy Organization, and its subsequent chapters was to proselytize and promote anime. Sean Leonard and Lee agree that without fan distribution that began in the 1970s and 19809s, the anime industry would not take off as it did in the 1990s.^[3][17] Some companies such as Protoculture Addicts with its titular magazine and Viz Media with Animerica drew their origins from anime club fanzines in the early history of fansubs.^[3]

Lee describes an unspoken rule in the early fan community: "once the anime was licensed the fansubbed version should no longer be circulated".^[17] As a result, many fansubbers do not view themselves as pirates.^[18] Sean Leonard distinguishes fansubs from bootlegs in this period, arguing that fansubs followed that unspoken rule, whereas bootlegs aimed to make a profit. Many fansubs began to include a "This is a free fansub: not for sale, rent, or auction" disclaimer as a response to bootleggers, and would encourage viewers to buy official copies.^[3] As fansubbing was so expensive in the 1980s, and official Western releases of anime were rare and often poor-quality, bootlegging tended to be financially infeasible during this period.

Early fansubs would often have markedly worse visual quality than official releases, as the VHS tapes of fansubs would deteriorate from repeated copying; this reduced the level of competition between fansubs and official releases.^[3][17] During the 1980s, US publishers typically found fansubbing useful for testing demand and broadening their fanbase, whereas Japanese publishers treat fansubbing as something remote and insignificant. Lee states that some Japanese producers even praised fansubbers' efforts at promoting their work overseas.^[17] However, ongoing technological advancement complicated that relationship. As subtitling became more affordable in the 1990s, both fansubbing and official Western releases of anime enjoyed an upswing. Further advances in the twenty-first century made each step of the fansubbing process easier and cheaper, and the visual standards of fansubs improved dramatically.

These technological developments were also coupled with shifts in how fansubs were produced and distributed. Fansubs began to be shared mostly online, first on

Some figures from the anime industry still maintain a positive view of fansubs. For instance, Steve Kleckner of Tokyopop described fansubs as "flattering [rather than] threatening", and stated that fansubs provided publishers with a means to identify what media their customer base might want to see.^[23]

Intellectual property lawyer Jordan Hatcher situates fansubs on the boundary between the desirable doujinshi fan culture and the "massive online file trading so vilified by the recording and motion picture industries". Legal scholar Lawrence Lessig states that the re-working of culture—remix—is necessary for cultural growth, and points to doujinshi in Japan as an example of how permitting remixes can contribute to a vibrant cultural industry. However, Hatcher states that fansubs are not analogous to this type of remix because their aim is to remain faithful to the original. Furthermore, Hatcher states that fansubs compete with the original cultural product since they have the potential to replace the market need for official translations, thus creating a similar situation to the debate over peer-to-peer file trading.^[6] Conversely, Henry Jenkins has argued that fansubbing has a positive impact on the anime industry through its function as publicity.^[24]

Hatcher states that copyright law does not condone fansubs. The

In 2002, Hideaki Hatta, president of Kyoto Animation, sent a letter to a fansub group requesting the stop of illegal distribution of the anime OAV Munto. The fansub group complied and the distribution stopped. This was the first legal action via a cease-and-desist letter against the fansubbing of an anime title not available outside Japan.^[26] However, it was later confirmed that Central Park Media licensed the title in the United States.^[27]

In 2003, a fansubbing group known as Anime Junkies was involved in a conflict with Urban Vision, the licensor and co-producer of the Ninja Scroll TV series. Urban Vision sent a letter asking for Anime Junkies to stop hosting the licensed material, but Anime Junkies did not comply with the request and responded negatively to Urban Vision. Christopher Macdonald, an editor at Anime News Network, highlighted the ethics code of the fansubbing community and asked that fans not support Anime Junkies as a result of their actions.^[28]

On December 7, 2004, a

On July 27, 2006, the legal department representing the Spanish anime company Selecta Visión sent a cease-and-desist letter to the anime BitTorrent and fansubbing site Frozen-Layer requesting the halt of the fansubbing and publishing all of current and prior anime licensed by the company. The owner complied and, until 2013, established that all licensed anime in Spain was banned from the site, regardless of the status of the license.^[30]

In Singapore, anime distributor

On May 18, 2007, Anime News Network reported that the police in Poland and Germany seized the fansubbing site Napisy.org arrested at least 9 people related to it. These raids were orchestrated by the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (ZPAV), a collective rights organisation, and German authorities shut the site which was hosted on servers in that jurisdiction. In May 2013, that case was closed, as prosecutors decided to drop the charges due to the charged individuals' ignorance of the unlawfulness of their actions. The site Napisy.org is currently closed and it shows sites to watch legal content.^[34][35][36]

On May 19, 2007, the Spanish organization Federación Anti Piratería (FAP) sent a cease-and-desist against the website Wikisubtitles.net and their website provider Bluehost, requesting the closure of the site since the owners were profiting with the content of others, violating copyright laws. The webmaster complied and the site was closed.^[37][38][39] However, the webmaster published the source-code of the website. Since then, websites like Addic7ed, Subtitulos.es and Wikisubs appeared using the Wikisubtitles source code.^[40]

On July 9, 2013, the Swedish copyright enforcement agency Intrångsundersökning seized the servers for Swedish and English website Undertexter.se, a website that contained fansub scripts of several movies and series.^[35][41] On 2016, the owner of the website, Eugen Archy was prosecuted of violating the Swedish Copyright Act and was found guilty of copyright violation and the Attunda District Court sentenced him to probation. In addition, he has to pay 217,000 Swedish kronor ($27,000), which will be taken from the advertising and donation revenues he collected through the site.^[42][43]

On September 21, 2016, the