Legality and Age for Media

I have a question about fansubs and scanlations (anime and manga that have been translated from their original language). Would owning any fansubs or scanlations violate copyright infringement since it has been changed from the original form? The process of creating a fansub or scanlation would violate some law since it is changing a product without the permission of the creator, but the fansub or scanlation is a new product.

Related off topic rant: I do own a d/l copy of one particular image editing program. I buy everything else.

The reason for the d/l program is that 3 years ago I paid approximately $1500 for the software as part of a suite. Two years after purchase, the entire suite stopped working suddenly. Everything would boot up fine, then at the last second shut down. No error messages, no indications of what was wrong. I called their tech support, and was informed that because I owned an "old" copy of the product, they were not willing to support it. They then tried to sell me an upgrade to the broken software for $600. I told them there was no way I was going to pay that much money for a product they would be unable to support in 2 years.

8 months later, while trying to fix another issue, I find out this company has released "license retrieval" software. Purpose: to fix broken software licenses. On a whim I decide to try it. And guess what, the entire suite works now. I spent 8 months with a broken product because the company's theft prevention software locked me out, and the company didn't even have the credibility to tell me this is what was wrong. I could have dealt with it if the product had stopped working for some technical reason, but something about it having been anti-theft software made me feel like I'd been accused of stealing a product I'd paid a very large sum of money for.

Morals of the story are that 1) whether that company loses money from pirates or no, they won't be getting money from this actual customer anytime soon and 2) if you happen to own a legal but unworking copy of this popular image editing software, which I won't name but those in industry probably know, do a search on "fix license" because this company is more concerned with keeping unpaying customers from accessing its products than from actually supporting people who bought the software legally.

Its because of this experience, and countless others where DRM software has accused me of stealing (I know everything I do about piracy from jerryrigging a legal copy of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 into working) that I have slowed my purchase of games and software significantly. Those companies can cry me a river. Theft of their products cannot excuse the fact that they are consistently MIA when these theft devices make the products hell to use for their actual customers. And I don't buy the argument that pirates make them do this.

There is also the problem of Hulu and similar websites not being accessible in Canada. Just because of a stupid imaginary line south of where I live, I can't watch various shows or clips on various American TV websites like Comedy Central. I find it due to certain people not willing to give up control. There needs to be some serious changes to copyright law so it does not screw over the artists.

The only things I download are anime, manga, and TV shows. With anime and manga, it usually takes months to years before it comes out in North America. Also there is a ton of anime and manga that will never reach North America through regular means.