Dragonball Fansub News ...

Well, I got another interesting email. Now this is an important email for all of you non believers our there. A copy of an actual cease and desist order FUNimation's lawyers to stop the DBZ ditribution. Dated July 27, 1999. Click on the image to see the whole scan. This was sent to a fellow DBZ distibution site.

I was searching for more people with the recent problems with funi and found all the information you had.  I requested stuff from you last winter, you might remember my site http://kashue.simplenet.com/lodoss/fansub/fansub.html

Since that time I accuired quite a few DBZ fansubs.  Most of them I got Ctenosaur and were good quality.  I did a few requests and my site popped up on someone's trusty distro's list on one of the newsgroups.  I then decided to advertise my fansub list in alt.fan.dragonball and alt.marketplace.anime.  Bad idea.  Before I did this I took my address off of my site because of all the crazy people on usenet and companies such as funi that frequent those groups.  A few people wanted stuff and I gave them my address.  I don't know exactly which person it was that was the lawyer.  Anyway I got a cease and desist order last week from funi's lawyers to stop the DBZ flow.  I am very small and only did about 15 DBZ requests since I first got DBZ from you back in January.  The interesting thing is the Taiwan address to the right side of the letter.  I'm assuming it is the address of Toei's group of lawyers.  Anyway it's the typical C&D fare.  I beleive they singled me out to try and make an example of or they mass mailed these to a bunch of distros.  I would like if you could ask if anyone else got this letter on your site since you get more hits than I.  I got C&D orders before for my other "activites" I was doing before fansubs, about 8.  Nothing happens and is genrally something not to worry about.  It's bad publicity to sue fans and would harm funi in ways they could never imagine.  Anime fans are much different folk than the average tape trader and would not like companies doing this then again a lot claim to be so damned ethical.

But I assume since all anime fans with fansubs are instant "ethical" bootleggers they will comply easily.  Now when C&D orders were sent out to many concert tape bootleggers, no one gave a shit and kept on doing what they always did and one person out of thousands was made an example of and only had his audio tapes shredded at the dump.  The same goes for Playstation bootleggers, thousands were sent C&D orders and one person was singled out and had all his games destroyed.  An anime company suing individuals so far has been unheard of.  They will always send out C&D orders and we will always continue to bootleg.  One person will be very unlucky in the future, but that's the price to do what we like to do and see what we want to see.

I attached the letter I got from them, I erased my address because of recent events.  I hope you will reconsider offering DBZ fansubs, funi is doing what other companies have done for years and it won't go too far.  It could get bad if people stop fansubbing and offering this series because funi will have their wish.

Sean Schuster
Kashue
kashue@my-deja.com

They are ripping people off and then threatening them with physical harm (from thier Italian Uncles none the less) if they try an email or ask about their request! It would almost be funny, except for the fact that they are taking peoples money and there is not much a person can do except warn others...

I visited their site and I must say that anyone who believes this crap almost deserves to be ripped off ... sorry, but MASTERS of practically every DRAGONBALL/Z/GT tape (which really tells you nothing about the quality, Master off a poor TV source is still not GOOD quality MASTER or not)... and a RAFFLE!!! Please, I draw number #41 (which I never gave out - so I keep everything, ha ha ha suckers!!)

Please, if a page is really poorly put together and doesn't really give you that much information, don't deal with them! They don't mention the types of tapes they use (you know they will be the cheapest available), they don't mention their real names, or any names at all... the only name I saw was them venting off some steam about some guy... remember if it looks to good to be true, it usually is!!

Here is some more info that was provided about the SCAMMERS... this person mentioned that he caught them using different emails and names to fool people, so he did the same and caught them... so avoid these emails and this address in the future...
 

Hello, your receiving this because you need to be informed of the current situation going on with Funimation. Please read below what i sent to about 7 fansub distro's earlier

<< Hello,
I am contacting you all because you all own good high quality fansub sites and there is some urgent news you must know. Recently my friend tex from saiyanpride.net contacted some representatives from funimation about copyright matters. During this time he learned that they are soon getting ready to take action against fansub sites with a class action lawsuit. Now while "soon" to funimation can end up being a long time. I wouldn't doubt it if they try to take down some fansub sites. They took down 3 last month and i havent heard of anymore being taken down since then. I figured they had given up but this recent news just tells me they are planning on an all out attack on dbz fansub sites.

Im sure most will ignore this and continue to make the fansubs, but you all own the larger fansub sites on the net and are prime targets. I doubt they'll be able to take them down when and if they try.  Basically this is just me trying to explain to you the situation. I really dont wanna any fansub sites down. All i can do is tell you whats going on. Just remember that violation of copyright can either be jail time or fines as high as 500,000 dollars.  I dont know how to fight funimation, it feels like were living in a largely oppressed society where we cant even choose to watch the original dbz and how it was meant to be. But instead are being forced to watch the "new" american version. -Danny >>

<<<< The only way to fight them, would to request a licensing agreement to sell subtitled tapes, with a small fee going to funimation for each tape sold.

The way I see it, this would actually benefit funimation in several ways.
They would be getting sales from people who would never buy their dubbed version. Also, most people I have sold tapes to say they will buy funimation's tapes later, but want to see the whole series now.

I suggest we circulate this idea around the net. In the end, this may be the only way to stop funimation from shutting fansubbers down. - Trunks Fansub >>>>

I would appreciate it if you would post something about this at each of your's fansub sites. And contact any websites you can think about and have them post something about it there. I have (http://www.dbzwarriors.cjb.net) and Bardock Story has(http://www.freespeech.org/bardockstory) the guy at bardockstory created a message board for it. if you would like to discuss it.  http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb646966    i also link to it at my site. and if you can link to it you should too.  -Danny

Well, because of this email, I have decided to do some checking and see what is going on, and it does seem as if FUNimation is going dubbing another 50 episodes censored/uncensored - to be released on video and aired on the Cartoon Network. If they are going to commit to producing all of Dragonball Z and eventually GT, we should support them. Even though I would prefer a subtitled version ... perhaps enough support for it will convince them to do it one day.

I visited a couple of the other sites and learned from the Bardock Story www page ...

As of 11:47 today rich called funimation's top executive and from what he had gather funimation has email all of the major fansubbers out there asking them to cease and desist distributing dbz and gt, The good news is that funimation is going to release all the episodes (uncensored) up to 291 and then they will be doing gt. We have agreed to take the download episodes down and the fansub distribution down. We fully support Funi in their quest to bring A+ quality English episodes to the US. oh by the way the reason why the uncensored is more expensive than the censored version is because cartoon network paid for the censored versions. Also funimation will email us in regards to the telephone conversation with rich.

I personally don't think the dragonball fansubs are taking and $$ away from FUNimation. Most US fans are young kids who don't even know about the changes that were made, or even care... they only know Dragonball from TV, so it doesn't bother them. It is also well know fact that most American anime fans prefer the dubbed versions, and that the dubbed versions sell 2-to-1 to their subtitled counterparts (if not more). Secondly, the fansubs that are available on the internet are actually some of the worst produced fansubs around. The TV series was never sold on LDs, so all of the sources were off TV broadcast, several generations down, only real fans of the show could over look the terrible picture quality and poorly done subtitles... really they would not be an alternative to a commercially produced sub. I mean, given the choice of a DBZ fansub to a commercially subtitled DBZ tape, I think all fans would choose the latter, don't you? Third, it is broadcast on TV, anyone could just tape it as an alternative to buying their tapes... does that take $$ away from them? I don't know, but I also don't want to argue the point with them, they have the rights to do what they want with Dragonball in USA (English), I have none.

If you want a list from me you'll have to email me for it. Otherwise, I didn't want to leave you guys hanging so I went out and found a few other sites that offer Dragonball. I can not guarantee any of these sites, other than Kodocha, I have not dealt with any of them, but they look safe enough...

Kodocha Anime - http://www.animemetropolis.com/kodocha/

This site has many DBZ distro sites listed, just take your pick! - http://www.freespeech.org/dbzwarriors/fansubs.html
 

Capsule Corp. (http://www.capsule-corp.com/) ~ well, closed. I trading with them in the past, assumming the same people run it... They sent the wrong tapes the first time, but were really nice about redoing them with the correct tapes and everything, so they are cool.

Meteorsmash Fansubs (http://anime-world.simplenet.com/gotenks/) - discontinued all DB titles.

Planet Namek - Trunk's Fanubs (http://www.planetnamek.com/fansub.html) - closed as well, and didn't want to trade with me :(

Gohan's Fansubs ( http://come.to/GohansFansubs) - well they are closed too, hmmm not looking too good for you guys, gomen na sai!! I didn't think this many sites would closed down...

DB Goten's Trading Zone (http://members.aol.com/DBGoten/) - Well, finally a site that was open ^_^ I emailed for a trade, a little slow getting the details worked out, but nice about it. Mailed the today (7/28) so hopefully I will have more DBZ soon ^_^

Ron's Fansub Trading Post (http://anime-world.simplenet.com/ron/) - Distribution is closed, but traders are welcome. I emailed for a trade and it went smoothy. Fast, Nice. He even provides color labels on his site ^_^

Here is another site with more links to check out... hey, I'm even on the list - at the very bottom! Is that good or bad? ^_^
Dragonball Blast - Links (http://www.videogamers.com/ramza/links.htm)

Kame House (http://members.xoom.com/endow/index.html) - open
JoJo's Anime Temple (http://www.oocities.org/Tokyo/Temple/4120) - open, as far as I can tell
Hyper Z (http://members.tripod.com/Andoryu) - open
Anything Goes Anime (http://members.tripod.com/~Dragon_BallZ/DB.htm) - open, as far as I can tell
Lord Frieza's Fansub Empire (http://members.aol.com/freezafan/main.html) -  currently closed due to backlog
Trunks 866 (http://anime-world.simplenet.com/trunks) - currently closed due to backlog
Vegita's DBZ Page (http://www.oocities.org/SoHo/Bistro/8243) - to open  sometime between July 31 and August 5
Anime Freak (http://user.fundy.net/stuff) - currently closed, Canadian
Trunks Ultimate Fansubs (http://anime.tasam.com/fansubs) - opened, closed?  this site's been having problems with the order form