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Originally Posted by Zaris
up until this point, wasn't Utawarerumono licensed in Japan to begin with? There must've been a company in Japan that held absolute copyright of the material.
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In short, no, but yes. It doesn't need to be "licensed" in Japan because the company that made it is based in Japan and has an established distribution channel in that country. By owning the copyright they already have world-wide distribution rights -- it is their copyright material they can do what they like with it.
What they don't have is the structures (money, contacts, infrastructure, people, etc.) needed to translate and distribute the work in other countries... so they allow other people to do it. The license is there to allow another company (that doesn't normally own the copyright) to distribute the show. The license normally applies to a limited region of the world (i.e. the USA), but doesn't have to. There may also be other limitations on what the company can and cannot do with the copyright material...
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Originally Posted by Zaris
What makes fansubs any more illegal now than they were before?
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Nothing. They were illegal before and continue to be so, as it says in our
Licensed Anime document. The difference is a purely moral and subjective one. We like to convince ourselves that fansubs are justifiable morally, if not legally, when they are NOT licensed. You quoted the origins of this idea, so I assume you've already read our documents on the subject.
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Originally Posted by Zaris
Also, does this mean Utawarerumono is no longer airing in Japan? Is it technically US material now?
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No, it will continue to air in Japan as before... and the copyright isn't transferred (at least not normally, I'm not privy to the contracts though, so it is impossible to say 100% what ADV are allowed to do and not.)
... and before this thread gets off-topic, please try to keep discussion of fansub illegality and morality out of this thread. It is about Utawarerumono being licensed not licenses in general (we have other threads for that hot-topic).