> How do you feel about sites that allow these
> forgeries or fancels to be sold via online
> auctions or even better sites that specifically 
> specialize in fancels?

I make the differance between "original" fan cels
and copies of production cels. I don't have 
anything against original fan cels and I admir
the skills of some of those fan artists.

I am strongly against sites that sell copy/forgery 
of production cels. But also sites that let people 
sell bootleg produces. One of the reason why I 
stoped using Ebay is that I was sick of seeing all 
those bootleg mouse pad, t-shirt or whatever.

> Do you place yourself at risk for allowing 
> fancels and their creators, although not 
> forgeries or forgerors, but nonetheless illegal, 
> to be sold on the "free auction" site

Risk ? Hard to say : look at sites like Ebay...
ISP can't check everything put on their servers by 
their customers or every data transfered.
But if informed of a problem, yes, we have to take
needed actions.

Personaly, whatever the risks of being held 
responsible if someone sell a copy/forgery on the 
"Free auction", I wouldn't allow it.
There is enough way to avoid that a fan cel could 
be confused with a real one. We discussed this 
many time in the past on the forum. This include :
- using original positions/layout (not copying an
  existing cel)
- using ones own style so that the cel can be
  easly recognized as a fan cel
- signing the cel in a way that can't be removed.
  (I suggested several time to sign it directly
   under the paint so it could be seen from
   the front and can't be erased without
   damaging the cel)
...
 
Based on this, I don't see how a "fan" could 
justify making a forgery. If he does, the only
reason is to sell it to someone unsuspecting.

> and your expert knowledge of it being illegal,
> does that not make you indirectly a part of 
> promoting and selling fancels that are 
> infringing upon anime copyright holders?

But yes, technicaly, by allowing people to post/
sell fancel, even those that are original, I could 
be held responsible in part.
In which case, the only defense is "goodwill" : by 
preventing abuses, by allowing only what is
"tolerated" by copyright holders and by acting 
quickly on their requests, I may expect to get a 
warning first and not being directly sued.

But there is nothing official about this. It's 
just that some things are more tolerated than 
others and if you behave in an ethical way, 
avoiding abuses, usualy copyright holders won't 
mind it. "Usualy"...

(Websites are the same : someone posting a few 
seconds from an anime episode may not have 
problem. Someone posting whole episodes is
begging for troubles)

> There is even a page dedicated to such work 
> (fancels) on Animanga for sale.

There is a fanart page. Many are from totaly 
original characters and so belong to the person 
who painted them. For the others, they are 
original images : not copies of existing ones.
The painting are also differant from any kind of
existing produces. As for the Sailor Moon fan 
cels, they are drawn in the manga style and can't 
be confused with a cel from the anime.
All this make me feel that it is acceptable. 
Copyright holders won't complain as long as it's 
in small quantity and don't become a real 
business. Fan/customers won't complain that they 
bought one (even indirectly) thinking they are 
official arts,
But again, yes, it is a breach of the copyrights 
and a copyright holder could at anytime order me 
to remove them. Or even sue for breach of 
copyright.

> Or do you think that it is fine as long as 
> collectors are satisfied and you receive no
> "Cease and Desist" orders from a copyright 
> holder?

No! It is this kind of attitude that lead to abuse 
and then enforcement of the copyrights much 
stronger than needed and that affect everybody.

As I said, some things are tolerated but as long 
as it doesn't cause problems/troubles to the 
copyright holders and there isn't abuse.
That's why it's up to us, and that include the fan 
artists, to put some ethical limits ourself.
Because if things goes out of hand and a copyright 
holder is pushed to take some action, he won't 
look at who abuse and who doesn't. He will just 
forbid totaly the use of his materials.
(again, the case of the fansub is a perfect 
example. We first made fansub to show in anime 
clubs and in conventions anime that weren't 
available. Anime companies were often 
sponsorizing such convention. But when many 
people started to "cheat" and distribute copies 
or even sell them all around, some anime 
companies feel they had to put a stop to it.
The result was that we couldn't show some anime
at conventions while it didn't really prevented 
people from selling illegal copies...)

Cheers,
Yann Stettler