the reason why the cels are illegal is because 
the cels and hanken monos produced by abc 
animation studio for abc company in Japan were 
never meant for resale least of all out of Japan? 
Hence if the cels were NOT exclusively made for 
sale ie LICENCED products for resale yes they are 
illegal people. 

The difference between a picture on a poster or a 
book is that these are licensed products for 
resale, cels aren't. Similarly yes
you don't own the image of the poster or the 
information within the book but you do own the 
poster b/c it IS licensed. Why do you think the 
movie industry in the U.S. is in such a huge 
uproar over stopping and making copies of VCD and 
DVDs that aren't licensed illegal, its b/c they 
aren't licensed for sale by the company that 
holds the rights. Books and posters by and large 
ARE licensed products.

Anime cels were and largely still are used 
strictly for production purposes and then yes 
some are given to employees but alot are still 
junked or some find their way into the public via 
sales and under the table transactions. Cel 
collecting in Japan is still by and large a 
hoardest hobby, why is it do you think that you 
don't see more Lodoss OVAs or more GunBuster OVAs 
cels? These cels are still desired and remain 
locked away in some otaku's apartment, rarely 
will they make it to a dealer and even less 
likely to the U.S..

Do you honestly believe that all of the cels 
dealers such as Curt or Yann find their way to 
sellers hand via public sales or generous gifts 
from the studios? Please, many are stolen from 
within the company some by the people who work on 
the series. It isn't as if managment was going to 
check each and every single one of the cels to 
see they were still housed IN the studio each and 
everynight.

cont...