Is pirating/illegally streaming anime wrong?

davinci12 said:
It still is stealing tho.

offmodel said:

And sell people on the idea that you should pay for beta testing (Early Access) and DRM that can take away your content at any time as well your ability to mod.

They're already making record breaking profits, the issue is from what (merch, mega franchises and the shows that are able to move BDs). The industry in Japan isn't in bad shape, I've never said it was, but if people want more shows geared toward western audiences like in the past, and more original big name franchises like a Cowboy Bebop, The Big O, etc., they should really consider supporting it. I also didn't mean to knock CR by leaving them out earlier in terms of current streaming revenue, my point is that if you really want to support the industry via streaming, it's going to be with a paying sub and not free with ads (but free with ads are still better than nothing, for sure).


It is still illegal and a civil offense, which people are being sued for every day, just not with anime lately.

Forgetfulness said:
In my opinion, it's definitely wrong. You're not paying for something that someone else made and is specifically charging money for
That said, it didn't really stop me from pirating. I just didn't deny that I was doing something wrong

Right now though I have a CR subscription, so at least that's something. Well it's kinda just sitting there cause I've kinda been really inactive in watching anime so I hope that helps at least

gHostickles said:
It does hurt the market at least slightly. I think anime would be somewhat more successful in the west if it weren't for all those sites.

offmodel said:
or even downloading shows that are abandoned (if you haven't seen The Big O, go pirate it right now).

Forgetfulness said:
In my opinion, whether or not the industry actually loses money doesn't change whether or not it is actually wrong. I'm almost certain there are laws that say you're not supposed to pirate stuff, and since torrenting breaks those laws, it is wrong.

Well, if there is a loophole in the law like if say pirating anime that is unlicensed in a region is ok or whatever, then in that case I wouldn't think it's wrong.

1307 said:
Well, the topic is called "is pirating wrong" and the poll is asking whether it hurts the market, which I think are two separate questions.

I'd say it's wrong because it's essentially stealing, simple as that. But if I decided to go pirate something, say just a single anime, it... doesn't actually hurt anything. But on the whole... well, how am I supposed to know? That's kinda complicated. I'd probably say people who ONLY pirate or illegally stream are hurting the industry, whereas people who do it as a last resort (can't find a place to buy it properly, I dunno) who wouldn't or couldn't have bought it... well, doesn't really make a difference, does it?

I tend not to pirate things or illegally stream, unless it's something I REALLY want to watch and can't get somewhere else.

Truemeabit said:
Its made for sale, not for free so of course yes, but it'd be even worse if it were licensed already. Though there are also some positive effects. but wrong is wrong!

SayaViking said:
I think it is wrong to pirate anime because it is stealing. But is it hurting the anime industry? Yes and no, since some people buy them if they liked the anime why some people leech everything and don't pay a dime. But it makes it easier to reach people outside of Japan so it is kind of a win but still it is not.

But I pirate it and watch it and if I like it, I buy it. But I am a materialist so I buy games and games and I want to keep them visible in my shelf. So I want to have the good anime I watch, so I try to help as much as I can.

SwatKat1990 said:
Of course it's wrong, you're basically taking money out of the studios' pockets.

MCsq2 said:
No, it does not. I think that all this pirating bs actually helps, rather than hurts, the industry. As you said, it allows people to acknowledge the existence of something in addition to being able to try it out themselves, for free. That will then lead to people buying the actual thing, as a way of support (or any other reason really).

shinnlorankira said:

Plus you have to put up with the fact official subtitles are usually terrible. If not in terms of translation quality, then in the fact they use hideous font and colors. Subtitles used in official releases are holdovers from other shows released in English and are not intended to be the primary way to view material. Fansubber subs are by far more pleasing on the eyes.

shinnlorankira said:
Again, is piracy wrong because it's illegal or because it doesn't offer compensation to the creators, because libraries exist, as do used book stores. Neither offer compensation to the creators.

Drunk_Samurai said:
Tell me how I'm taking money out of anybody's pocket if I never intended on buying the product in the first place.

JD4211 said:
Supporting Crunchyroll and other N. American exclusive sites is killing anime since other countries can't license them.

Zalis said:
I agree that official subs can have their shortcomings, but I also find it suspicious that the fandom definition of "hideous" or "eyecancer" happens to be "whatever the industry happens to use." Nobody blinks an eye when fansubbers use white text with black outlines, yet whenever anyone encounters a Funimation stream rip featuring white text with black outlines, they cry to the heavens about "awful fonts" and such.

So do you make a habit of sneaking into concerts, and if you get caught, do you defend yourself with, "Well I didn't do anything wrong, I wasn't going to pay for a ticket anyway"?

KiryuuMoeka said:
I live in poland and there's a lot of anime available on crunchyroll for free and there's even more when you subscribe. Not sure but U.S might still get more from subscription but life's never fair I guess
If I can't afford it, it's not licensed in my country etc I have no right to watch it. Just like I buy cheap food and 2nd hand clothes my anime's gonna be the same. Pirating is just greed in this situation since there's so much free and cheap content available but to each it's own I guess.

-Lighto- said:
dream of going to Japan.

Drunk_Samurai said:

That's a bad argument. Just because something is against the law doesn't mean that the law is right. Copyright laws are a good idea in general but the way everything works is too much.

I don't buy shit yet I don't harm the industry since I wouldn't have bought the products.

grandy_UiD said:
Yeah, but we all do it anyway...

Working_Designs said:
In my opinion, pirating Anime that's licensed in North America is wrong.

I purchase all the licensed Anime I'm interested in on DVD.

grandy_UiD said:
Yeah, but we all do it anyway...

Working_Designs said:
In my opinion, pirating Anime that's licensed in North America is wrong.

I purchase all the licensed Anime I'm interested in on DVD.

Deus-Vult said:
Pirating is a form of stealing
Of course its universally bad

KamiCity said:

No it's a good argument, laws are made to maintain social order, morality in itself is subjective so the only thing we have to go off is laws. Until the law changes, it is wrong to break the law.. pushing for change is a completely different story.

If it weren't for laws, then things like murder, theft, assault, slander, and what ever crime we wanted to commit would be ok. Since there is nothing to tell us that these things are morally wrong besides opinion.

Yet you wouldn't have watched it either, the problem isn't that you wouldn't have paid for it, it's that you watched it and still didn't pay for it.

Let's put it into another perspective, I walk into a donut shop and eat a donut and walk out without paying? Is this a crime? Yes correct?
In your point of view, why though, since there are plenty of other donuts for costumers and if I didn't eat the donut I wouldn't have paid for it.
Donuts are pretty cheap to make, it's easy to make copies of them and one donut doesn't really hurt the donut shop that much.... but it's still theft

Theft of intellectual property aka copyright infringment is still theft, the only difference is that one is "intellectual property" and the other is "physical property"

It's not like walking to a donut shop and looking at the donuts, that would be akin to watching a trailer for a show. You consumed the actual product which took resources to make in both cases, and you didn't pay your part.

Sites like crunchyroll and funamation are there to help you, not only do they provide a free platform for you BUT they all pay your dues for you. They pay the price for you to watch the shows. Subscriptions help you get the shows faster, by you paying part of the due.

Damn crunchyroll even offers free 30 day trials as a premium member that you could continue to use as long as you have people to give them to you.

I'm not going to pretend I don't but I do rarely do it, for the most part I go through the subscription based sites aka funamation, crunchyroll, hulu, netflix since they do pay the industry to provide us with the content. It's very rare that I can't find the shows I want through one of those sites.

Lancehot said:

With a VPN, you can be. Well, until you go to Funi's or TAN's site & discover they block VPNs. Hulu doesn't, though, but you have to sit through the unbearable shitness that is US advertising. Crunchy doesn't either, I don't think, though I've found it to be a bit hit or miss whether I'll get access to the US only stuff or not.

Drunk_Samurai said:

It was against the law to help slaves in America and Jews in Nazi Germany. Nice fucking logic. A law is not inherently right. Also no it is not theft. I already posted the definition of theft in this thread. Actually physically stealing something causes shrink and the only way a person who downloads something is a lost sale is if they would have bought the product in the first place.

The original copy had already been sold anyway even technically TV rips due to advertisements. A person who would not have bought the product in the first place is literally costs a company $0 due to never even planning on it.

Grey-Zone said:


your logic:


WE'RE ALL LIVING IN AMIERCA!









...or MAYBE not?



Supporting the original creators is already harder to do with licensed versions of the DVDs/BDs, same if you import directly from Japan, since there are shipping costs. Now if one has to pay for shipping costs (importing DVDs/BDs from NA to EU) AND redirect some of the spent money to the U.S. publishers? Now that's just a waste and doesn't help supporting the original creators, if more than half of the money goes to "others".


Also DVDs/BDs are expensive as hell for a college/university student, even if they are licensed in EU too. At most I can occassionally buy a few manga volumes.

KamiCity said:

1. Did you just compare not being allowed to copy or watch someone else's material, to slavery or Nazi germany? Do you know what "Appealing to extremes" is? Don't try to defend breaking the law by mentioning something so irrelevant.
2. What is so inherently wrong about not being allowed to copy/steal someone elses work? Copyright is there to protect the creator, you have no right to the creators work. Are people dying because they're not allowed to view those copies?
3. Also yes it was against the law, it was wrong to break the law, that's why we fought wars to change slavery and against the nazi's. Take a ethics course and learn about Kant and Mill and you'll start understanding why it's so hard to see what's "right" and "wrong" when it comes to almost everything about morality.

I'm not saying the law doesn't need work, it does and a whole lot of work, but that doesn't change the fact that it's there to protect the creator.

It's called Theft of intellectual property for a reason. It doesn't matter how much you argue against it, it's still theft. It's still defined as theft by the law. Take any law course dealing with business and intellectual property and you'd know that. Same reason why it's against the law to "copy" someone elses inventions, aka patents. Same reason it's against the law to "copy" the look of another business aka trademake (you can't open a business called mcdonalds and sell burgers). Same reason it's against the law to plagiarize.
It's still stealing someone elses work for your own benefit/entertainment.

So what happens when no one buys? What happens when only one person buys and uploads it and everyone else decides they are entitled to it and don't have to pay? Hey it's ok they "would have never bought it anyway" it's ok for the creators not to make money, and not continue to create.

In the end it doesn't really matter though, it's not like it's so heavily enforced anyway, and they'll very rarely go against us the viewers instead of the uploaders.