The Goonies 9. 15 Minutes 10. The fansubber then slaves away at a personal computer for hours, adjusting the start and end times for each line of dialogue, rewriting the lines to flow better, and positioning the titles to look perfect. These finished productions are then copied and given away or traded for other works. Fansubs can be found in nearly every country with a strong anime following, with the United States and Canada in the lead, of course. Other shows simply don't have the potential to be successful in America, and so a fansub is the only way an English speaker can see these shows.
Nothing's ever simple.
Second, only anime that has not been acquired for release in North America can be fansubbed. After something is licensed, no further copying of that title can take place. People that own fansubbed copies are encouraged to buy a legitimate copy as soon as it's released. At least, that's how it's supposed to work. But these rules are vague enough that warring factions of fansubbers and distributors with different interpretations of them have broken out.