The requirement for fansubs is that the subber to 
distribution makes no money off the subs. And 
they DON'T. I thouroughly researched this since I 
was considering becomming a subber for a while, I 
checked the legalese of it, and they're doing 
nothing wrong, since the copyright rules for 
tapes from other countries allows distribution as 
long as no money is made without the sellers 
permission. All fansubbers charge you for is the 
cost of the materials (i.e. per tapes, label, 
etc), and then shipping. Which is why $6 is the 
cost of one tape. About $3.50-3.90 for shipping, 
and then the rest of the 2.10-2.50 for cost of 
the cassette, case, and label. Consequenly, 
shipping goes up with each tape you buy, but not 
by 3.50, so the next tape is cheaper usually, 
about $10-11 total, if you've got a good distro. 
And then for 3 $14 is the norm, although there 
are some who keep charging $6, like Sekihuo Gumi 
(which had to recently start doing this, as his 
costs were not breaking even) for tapes, but this 
is still understandable, because subbers have 
trouble breaking even. Fansubbers and distros 
make no money, and are simply in it for the sheer 
love of the hobby and sharing allof the htigns 
about it, so I think knocking people who do this, 
make no money, and yet are still willing to put 
up with criticism is pretty cool, not to mention 
make series available here that might never be 
available otherwise. I MYSELF, on the other hand, 
and starting to despise commerically released 
anime. If you've seen it recently, most series 
are being released subbed only on DVD, and even 
then it is merely dubtitling (using the dubbed 
script as the subtitle script), or horrendous 
subtitling (I've seen "Iyaa!" subtittled 
as "Ahhh!" too many times on commercial 
releases...>< It means "No!"...)And with 
dubtitling, the American VA's are given free 
reign to improvise, and many have no idea what 
the anime is about, but improvise the script in 
the studio as they go (the Mahou Tsukai Tai 
release, anyone?), so the subtitling job, which 
is dubtitled, is wrong in consequence. It's just 
too frustrating. I want someone who will subtitle 
what they're really saying, or I'll watch the 
stuff raw (hey, I know enough Japanese to do it, 
and it's much better than watching the horrendous 
way anime is being handled here, or the terrible 
way American VA's, who in no way deserve the 
term "actor" in their title, hack up characters. 
Crispin Freeman, anybody? He replaces both Hikaru 
Midorikawa and Koyasu Takehito on instances, as 
Zelgadiss and Touga, and both characters he 
literally mutilates. They're not suppossed to BE 
that way, and no matter how sexy someone might 
think his voice is, he still make sthe character 
totally different than they are. The whole point 
is to get it as CLOSE to the original as 
possible, here, people. Not to mention Midorikawa 
and Takehito both have better voices by far 
ANYWAY...). Basically, I'm just disgusted with 
how it's all being handled.

(cont on post 2...)