Background Information
Fansubbing began aroung the 1980s in Japan where animes were produced in large quantutities. These animes were generally in Japanese and not distributed in foreign contries. Thus, fans who did not understand Japansese or lived outside of Japan had very little access to these animes. In the past, fansubbing required a tedious process of rewinding and editing many times over and were very costly. Presently, fansubbing is could be done easily with the availability of technology andis relatively cost-free. The fansubbed episodes are then distributed via online file-sharing protocols. Fansubs usually contains a note "this is fansub made for fans by fans. please do distribute, rent or sell it to a third party" to the viewer.
Impact of fansubbing
The good thing is that fans from overseas are able to enjoy understand the anime they adore so much without waiting for years for the anime to hit their country. Furthermore, fansubbing also serves as an advertisement for the anime. An example would be Azumanga Daioh, an anime overlooked for US distribution was later licensed by ADV films after they saw the popularity this series had in the fansub community. Another point to take note is that most fansubbing groups subbed the animes with the intention of sharing the anime with the fans and not for profit making. Fansubbers also usually work with animes which have not been licensed in North America.
However, the truth of the matter is that fansubbed animes are a form of piracy as it violates the copyrights. It is also a truth that fansubbing groups tend to continue subbing an anime even after it has been licensed if the series has not ended or have been running for many episodes. Fansubbing also leads to the mindset that fansubbing is better as it is cheaper and therefore turn to fansubbed anime even after the anime has been licensed. It is also true that bootleggers copy these fansubbed anime into disc and sell them, which goes aganists the ethics of fansubbing.
So, I would say that the morality of fansubbing is decided by how we, the viewers choose to do with them.
