Cels Forum

I've been a strong force on Ebay to alert them when a
fansub is being sold. Usually it can be proven the tape is
a fansub if you write the seller in advance and ask him who
"produced" the tape. Inevitably, they think you're dumb (or
they're dumb, themselves) and give you the name of the
fansubber. Then get the fansubber's URL (most have one) and
send all that info, including your communication with the
seller, to the Ebay authorities. One look at the fansubber's
website should tell them the item isn't legitamate.
Unfortunately, some of Utena has been released here in the
US, so it's not as easy to nail the seller to the wall for
that as it is for Vampire Miyu TV. (Regarding which when
Ebay told me it was the seller's word against mine, I told
them to check a videos in print listing and they would see
it had never been released and thus, that person couldn't
possibly have a copy, could they? ~_~)

However, I know there are a couple sellers who continue to
repeatedly sell fansubs on Ebay, and just word their auction
listings very carefully. If we wanted to make a difference,
maybe we could band together and present ourselves to Ebay
as an organized, knowledgeable group regarding fansubbed
anime. But if we were going to do something like that, we
would have to pick one aggressive fansub seller (at least
to start) and be very diplomatic and organized in our
presentation to Ebay.

And to the poster who said she'd still watch fansubs - there's
nothing wrong with that at all!! ^_^  You just can't sell
them. Even after something is domestically released and I
buy an official copy, I often keep my fansub of the same
thing, which inevitably has different translations on a
word-to-word basis and can teach you a lot about the
structure of language.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac (who spits fire when she sees fansubs being sold)