Fansub X Industry Panel at Otakon 2008

I'm surprised I couldn't find anything on here about it yet. Ken Hoinsky from MX Media (a newly started translation  company) decided to host a panel discussion that places anime fansubbers beside (usa) anime industry people and have them talk out differences and see how things can be worked out amongst them. He first lays out facts and sets ground rules for the session. This panel is also not a VS panel so the discussions that came about were really imformative and helpful.

I first heard about it on Anime-Pulse referring it to ANN so i decided to go check it out. ANN actually has the full panel session recorded and uploaded for streaming. The discussions brought about are really good. However, some of the topics were left hanging because of time restraints and such. ANN also has a forum setup for comments and further discussion.

Two of my favourite points mentioned inside the forum comments are: 

Americanization quote from Ultenth 
There are also many circumstances where shows are very heavily Japanese, and have lots of elements of history and religion and other, such as Rental Magica. Often the fansubbers for these series will add notations in order to fully explain the historical, religious or cultural referances, and sometimes even add note pages before or after the show as well. 9/10 times when these shows are brought over the US companies do not do the same, and so a lot of the culture shown in the episodes is lost because they dumb it down or ignore them altogether. 

Aside from Rental Magica, I remember seeing these notes in Ooedo Rocket. I think it might also have been by the same subgroup as well. (likely SHS) Now if you say it is distracting, then if the industry is willing, they could choose to turn the episodes into slightly interactive episodes where they give a small marker in a part of the screen (one spot where it will not wreck the screen but still catch your attention if you want it to) and then at that moment, you may either pause the screen or press a certain designated button and the show pauses while you get a "translator note" type thing displayed on-screen.

Anime variety quote from billborden 
Only a small percentage of Americans will have an Anime collection to match most the people on this thread, but Anime is actually broad enough that many people can find something they like. I know, I've introduced many non-fans to one or another series. Only a few have become "fans", but most have found something they liked, and many of those have bought a DVD or a series because: "Damn, Sumomo is cute", "Paradign city is a lot like Gothem, isn't it" or "Miu's a pain in the ass, but Chika's actually the only sane one" (this one didn't make a lot of sense to me either, but it got my brother to buy "Ichigo Mashimaro"). Rabid fans with money create profits for companies, but casual fans pay for the day-to-day business. 

Now to sidetrack a bit, there's also the thing of fansubbing games or Undubs. There's also the thing with fansubbing dramas. (The panel made me think about games and then there was a j-drama fansubber in the Q&A line.)

What are your views on these issues? (I realize this might be similar to the Fansub Documentary post but this is a neat topic and is slightly different. It's nice to see them getting along and talking things out like this.)

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Picture of Rein Force sleeping is a screencap from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (One of the earlier episodes...I think...)