Ask John: Should Edited Anime be Fansubbed?

Question:
After reading through your analysis of the American release of the Sailor Moon, and Toei’s understandable unwillingness to tarnish their “child-safe” reputation, what is the proper legal stance on fansubs of anime that the franchise has been purchased, but has been announced that certain parts will not be released? Does that make it legal and ethical to buy fansubs of the episodes that will not be released uncut?

Answer:
In a strictly legal sense, fansubs are illegal. Period. International copyright law allows for only private individuals purchasing official DVD copies for viewing in their own homes by only themselves and members of their immediate family. Sharing copies of anime, even untranslated “raws” of anime not licensed for American release, is a felony. Purchasing a DVD and showing it at an anime club meeting without written approval from the copyright owner is a felony. Putting any full length anime online without written approval from the copyright owner is a felony.

If we examine fansubbing from an ethical, rather than legal, perspective, the traditional policy of the English language fansubbing community is that once a title is officially announced for English language release it should no longer be fansubbed. Even in the case of series like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon that are only available in America in heavily edited, English dubbed only format, and even in the case of a series like Sailormoon where only four out of five seasons of animation have been licensed for US release, the title is still licensed for English language release. The traditional purpose of fansubs is to generate and increase awareness of obscure and import only anime titles in the hopes of having these titles officially, legally released in English. The purpose of fansubs has never been to provide fans with a more comprehensive or complete or more authentic version of an anime series than a domestic commercial release version. By definition, even if the official American release is altered or edited, a fansub release of the same title is unquestionably in direct competition with the legitimate, licensed domestic version. Direct competition is the one thing that distinguishes good natured fansubs from unscrupulous bootlegging.

When an anime series is released in America in an altered, edited or incomplete form, American anime fans have two ethical, responsible avenues of recourse: import official Japanese home video releases for private, personal viewing, and urge the American distributor to release a complete and/or unaltered version of the anime. Although it is done commonly, simply producing an alternate fansub release that directly competes with an official release of the same animation is illegal, unethical, and ultimately contrary to the principles and goals of fansubbing. Producing fansubs of unlicensed animation within a licensed series, such as a fan produced translation of the Sailormoon: Sailorstars animation, may technically be no different from fansubbing any other unlicensed series, leaving room for justification of a fansub release, but many times fansubbing groups may choose to avoid translating such animation as a courtesy to the American licensor, or to avoid even the potential accusation of fansubbing or distributing licensed anime.

It’s frustrating to die hard fans when an anime title is released in America only in an Americanized version. But the solution isn’t undermining the American release by distributing uncut bootlegs. Such actions don’t encourage an American distributor to re-release anime in uncut editions. Such actions from the fan community only antagonize. Fan translations of a series that’s already been released in America can’t possibly precede a possible future American release, so there’s no possible way that such fansubs can adhere to the traditional code of fansubbing ethics. To reiterate once more in closing, the traditional purpose and intention of fansubs is to encourage the local regional release of more anime. Fansubs are not supposed to be either an inexpensive substitute for legitimate releases nor be an alternate version of official releases.