Several years ago, anime fans began to translate and subtitle the Dragon Ball animated series so that people who did not know Japanese could view it. At first, this seemed fine, seeing as no one owned the copyright in the United States, and therefore, a profit was not being lost by anyone from the production of these tapes. These tapes are also one of the reasons that DBZ was so popular when your company released it. However, once your company bought the rights to the series, the distribution of these tapes became an immoral act. This isn’t to say that those who were selling them for profit before you bought the series weren’t in the wrong. To the contrary, they were still violating the Toei copyrights and profiting from doing so. Now that some of these individuals are still selling, action needs to be taken to stop them.

The staff here at Toriyama.org is more than happy to help your company take down these bootleggers. As you’ll notice, there is an extremely large number of fansub distribution groups on the web. As you look at these sites, keep in mind that not only are they violating your company’s rights, but they are also evidence that subtitled DBZ would sell if released commercially in North America. The webmaster for our site, Steven J. Simmons, has a BA in the Japanese language and would be willing to work to create accurately translated scripts if you ever decided to do this. Steven is also one year away from having his degree in computer science, is an expert in HTML, has an understanding of 3D Studio Max, and is learning (along with myself and two other site staffers) how to program DVDs. The two other individuals associated with the site each have other areas of expertise that could be a help to your company, one having a degree in film production and the other working for his degree in the Japanese language. If you would be interested in any of us helping in the promotion of DBZ in North America, please contact us. I am hoping that this list will be of help to you, but please keep in mind that this is not anywhere near the total amount of sites out there that are selling your copyrighted material.

—Brian Real
Head of PR and Project Coordinator for Toriyama.org
June 22, 1999

Site Name: The Ultimate DBZ Information Site Site Site Address: http://www.goes.com/~dbzinfo Fansub Sub area: http://www.ultimatedbzinfo.com/dbzstore.html Description: This site is easily the biggest thorn in FUNimation’s paw on the web. Not only does the owner, Greg Werner, sell fansubs, but he also steals images and info from other sites (ours included) and claims that it is his; he uses vulgar images to try to attract people to his site; and he has started several mass mailing campaigns to your company (i.e., one suggesting that your company sell DBZ to another company). If you want to stop him from selling fansubs, force him to shut down his distribution section. If you want to cut down the amount of annoying e-mail messages your company gets each day, force him to shut down his site entirely.

Site Name: Super 5 Site Address: http://www.super5.com Fansub Sub area: http://www.iwh.com/rmazzara/cd_sale.html Description: Not only does this site sell fansubs, but they also have Real Video files of various episodes for download and they were using our episode guide a while back to promote their tapes. Needless to say, we wouldn’t mind seeing this site getting into trouble. For the Real Video area, go to: http://www.super5.com/W_DBZ.html

Site Name: Capsule Corp. Site Address: http://www.capsule-corp.com Fansub Sub area: http://www.capsule-corp.com/Dragonball.html Description: Probably the largest fansub distributor ever. As of now, though, they are no longer selling tapes.

Site Name: Meteorsmash Fansubs Site Address: http://anime-world.simplenet.com/gotenks Fansub Sub area: http://www.anime-world.simplenet.com/gotenks/titles.html Description: This site not only sells DBZ fansubs, but videos for many other series. As far as we can tell, they will sell no less than 3 tapes at a time.

Site Name: Trunks Fansubs Site Address: http://www.planetnamek.com/fansub.html Fansub Sub area: http://www.planetnamek.com/fansub.html Description: Formally one of the highest prices distribution sites out there at $12 for 1 tape, they’ve now knocked it down to $8. Either way, though, they’re still ripping the fans and your company off.

Site Name: DBGoten’s Trading Zone Site Address: http://members.aol.com/DBGoten Fansub Sub area: http://members.aol.com/DBGoten Description: This guy is actually selling enough tapes to have to limit the number of tapes a person can buy from him.

Site Name: N\A Site Address: http://problematiks.webjump.com/list.htm Fansub Sub area: http://problematiks.webjump.com/list.htm Description: This site is selling at least 10 series that have been commercially released in the United States.

Site Name: Ron’s Fansub Trading Post Site Address: http://anime-world.simplenet.com/ron Fansub Sub area: http://anime-world.simplenet.com/ron Description: One of the larger distributors out there, selling off a large part of DBZ. Oddly, though, this site will not trade other series that have been released in the United States.

Site Name: Anime Freak’s Fansub Distribution Site Address: http://user.fundy.net/stuff Fansub Sub area: http://user.fundy.net/stuff Description: Although this is a smaller site, the owner is violating several company’s copyrights, distributing series that are being released by not only your company, but other companies as well.

Site Name: Gotenks2000’s DBZ Page Site Address: http://gotenks2000.hypermart.net Fansub Sub area: http://gotenks2000.hypermart.net/fansub.html Description: This site is actually selling fansubs from a retail store! You may want to investigate and give a warning to the store that is being worked out of on top of closing this site.

Site Name: Dragon Ki Fansubs Site Address: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Courtyard/1970/tapes.html Fansub Sub area: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Courtyard/1970/tapes.html Description: Although this site doesn’t have much in terms of Dragon Ball, it has plenty of other series.

Site Name: Jinzoningen Fansubs Site Address: http://www.angelfire.com/il/jinzoningen Fansub Sub area: http://www.angelfire.com/il/jinzoningen Description: This site has just about ever DBZ episode that was made, including the ones that you have already released here.

Site Name: Kame House Distribution Site Address: http://members.xoom.com/endow/index.htm Fansub Sub area: http://members.xoom.com/endow/index.htm Description: Quite a nice collection. The site is getting so many orders that they can’t fill them fast enough to keep up!

Site Name: Chibi Distributors Site Address: http://members.tripod.com/~ChibiKuririn/chibdis/main3.html Fansub Sub area: http://members.tripod.com/~ChibiKuririn/chibdis/main3.html Description: The distribution of tapes from this site is temporarily down. With the threat of legal action, though, they will be permanently down.

Site Name: AniPlanet Site Address: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bridge/7951/index.html Fansub Sub area: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bridge/7951/title.html Description: This is easily the largest fansub list I’ve ever seen!

Site Name: N\A Site Address: http://home.earthlink.net/~pangit/index.htm Fansub Sub area: http://home.earthlink.net/~pangit/index1.htm Description: If bad HTML was a crime, this guy would already be in trouble.

Site Name: Kashue’s Fansubs Site Address: http://kashue.simplenet.com/lodoss/fansub/fansub.html Fansub Sub area: http://kashue.simplenet.com/lodoss/fansub/fansub.html Description: More than just DB.

Site Name: Kenshin Anime Club Site Address: http://anime-world.simplenet.com/club/list.htm Fansub Sub area: http://anime-world.simplenet.com/club/list.htm Description: This site has most of DB and almost all of DBZ and GT.

Site Name: Son Gohan's Anime and Tokusatsu Trade and Distrubition Site Address: http://members.tripod.com/~gohanson/index.html Fansub Sub area: http://members.tripod.com/~gohanson/index.html Description: One of the few fansubs sites I’ve seen to also have live action Japanese shows.

Site Name: Saiyan Vegeta’s Dragon Ball Z Page Site Address: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/4303 Fansub Sub area: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/4303/main.html Description: One of the higher priced fansub distribution sites.