Legal Question in Technology Law in Hawaii

Re: Fansubs & Fanart legal or illegal?

If a web site operator places something copyrighted on his site, and someone views it, it might be copyright infringement, but it would be the site operator, and not the viewer, who had the problem. The fan who translated the foreign show would actually have a copyright on their translation. But this would be subordinate to the copyright of the television show's owner. Even though a show may be copyrighted in Japan, the producer can still get a US copyright and enforce that right.

For this reason, I would not download these programs. If you watch them on line, you might or might not be liable for copyright infringement, but the presence of "bandwidth monitoring" by companies who look for people pirating movies the music is something that would cause me concern.

Your best bet is to avoid sites that do not protect US and foregin copyrights.