Why do multiple groups sub the same anime?

I was wondering why some groups decide to start subbing series already being done by another group. Its so annoying especially when one group interprets names and stuff differently to the other group. For example in Gundam Seed, one group did the first 40 or so episodes and then stopped and another group started but changed nearly every single persons name and watching the last 10 eps was a bit weird. I'm watching Inuyasha right now and its annoying how some groups say hanyou and youkai while others don't, its just confusing.
There should something that is the equivalent of liscensing in fansubs don't you think?

I sorta agree with you. It is annoying sometimes, especially in the case of Gundam SEED.
But it is their choice, after all. And since its free, who cares?

I dont mind multiple groups subbing the same series but they gotta keep some consitency through out the groups. This applies to names mainly (and not names of just characters).

Inuyasha is a special case, it's a long licenced series, so it's natrual for group to either get tired or stop becuase it's Licenced... and then new groups get in the action, and they have thier ideas about suffix names (kagome-chan, Kouga-kun) or use of english names (Sankon tetsu vs soul shattering iron claws, Kazzana vs air void), and it's an entire mess.,,

I agree that it can be a bit annoying (I lived the first 10 episodes of Inuyasha believing that Inuyasha is Half Goblin), but you'll get used to it. fansub group shouldn't be the thing to stop you from watching an anime you like.

BTW: at least we haven't seen anyone transelating Miroku's last name into 'star'

really, it's not like any one group "owns" a specific series...

you see a lot of overlap for a lot of reasons .... the most prevalent one is simple desire to do a series. Example: AnimeOne wanted to sub Chrno Crusade. So did 10 or so other groups. This had nothing to do with who else was subbing it, we just wanted to see it done.

Sometimes groups will talk among each other to prevent some of the duplicated efforts... but sometimes they don't.

As far as names and translation styles go, well .... with names, there's often no "official" spelling. So Kagari uses the same phonemes as Cagalli, and Lacus and Lux and Lex are all equivalent too. Lavie and Ravi and whatever else are the same. Basically until the official website gives character bios with english spellings, no group can claim their spelling is "correct" unless it somehow happens to appear in the video later in the series somewhere, and even then "official" names and spellings can differ from what appears in the video, because the animators and authors and artists don't always have particularly sharp english skills either... (see ROD-TV's "Rocked" instead of "Locked" as an example).

So, spellings and styles are impossible to get right consistently (most of the time) and different groups don't usually care too much who else is doing something. So yeah, you'll see duplicated efforts, inconsistencies across groups, etc. It's part of the fansub gestalt, so get used to it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]. If you really want consistency, especially in a long series, buy the r1 dvds and hope the dvd company is consistent (they usually are). Otherwise .... just gotta put up with it.

If nothing else it's really unnecessary. I mean, who the hell watches any of those obscure Naruto fansubberss work? YOMP, DarkAnime, NarutoAnime... wtf?

They do it for the love of the series, I'm guessing. By doing it they pay a respect to the series itself, even if nobody d/ls it at all.