Fansub

A fansub (short for fan-subtitled) is a copy of a foreign movie or television show which has been subtitled by fans in their native language. It is most commonly used to refer to fan-translated anime videos that are shared amongst other fans.

While many fansubbing groups stop distributing a show once it is licensed in North America, some continue long afterwards. Shows licensed by 4Kids, for example, are considered by some to be "not truly licensed," due to the company's refusal to release unedited versions of their properties. Fansubbers have been the lone source of subtitled versions of several 4Kids shows, including Tokyo Mew Mew, One Piece, and Yu-Gi-Oh!.

An older example is Sailor Moon, which was initially licensed by DiC. No uncut or subtitled version was ever released by DiC, prompting some fansubbers to distribute their own. It wasn't until 2003 that commercial subtitles of the first two seasons appeared; no commercial release of the fifth season has ever been made. However, all of Sailor Moon has recently lapsed into being unlicensed, making fansubs the only available source of the show for fans.

There are other examples, such as Samurai Champloo or Ghost in the Shell, which were fansubbed after they were licensed by respectable domestic companies (Geneon and Bandai respectively) who later produced accurate subtitled DVDs of the shows.

One Piece Fansubbing
Efforts to combat fansubs are found on YouTube, who have been pressurised by many companies to regulate the site. YouTube is against the use of licensed material being added to the site, of which fansubs fall into this category. However, it should be realised that AMVs, episode clips and other such media are also against their rules and YouTube has also targetted many other anime.