The whole debacle first started with the rising popularity of video streaming sites and how easy it was to upload material. Thus, it’s not too surprising to find entire seasons hosted on (for example) Youtube before such sites got complaints and removed them. Yet, uploaders of anime still persevere and they implement various techniques to avoid the “ban hammer”, some of them work but most don’t.

In this case, Dattebayo Fansubs made their policy clear that their releases must not be uploaded on Veoh, Youtube, etc. Not only will the video quality be diminished by the giant streaming pixel, it draws a lot of attention to the fansubbing industry, which for the most part remained in the gray area of the law… until now.

Since fansubs are technically illegal, it’s obvious that the official license holders would be concerned as potential profits disappear. Some people might go so far as to say that fansubs are killing the anime industry as much as they’re helping it. But regardless, if distribution companies feel threatened enough, they will take action (ODEX being an extreme case).

At some point, they will stop trying to go after the sites themselves and simply cut off the problem at the source (i.e., us)

Well said from the Dattebayo Fansub team.

Though I personally don’t watch Naruto, there’s plenty of other fansub groups working on well-known titles (i.e., Code Geass). If the future license holders decide to safeguard their investment, we might see more of such actions in the future. Whether or not this spells the end of the fansub community, only time can tell.

But one thing’s for certain… The only group to do up-to-date English releases of Naruto Shippuden have now ceased operations on that project… which means…