I think that's easier now with the Internet, but keep in mind when Lain came out the Internet fansub community was really just getting going. I remember in 2001 being blown away that I could download an entire series in under an hour from a friend at another university (it ran over Internet2 so I could actually saturate my 100mbps ethernet connection with it). This was years before streaming video was even possible outside RealPlayer.

Back then, it didn't really get popular in the US unless it was already popular in Japan. I realize that's changed now, but back in the early days of Internet video there just wasn't the same level of access.