Crunchyroll, a video-streaming website known for offering anime titles without authorization, secured a capital investment of US$4.05 million. Venture capital firm Venrock reportedly invested the capital in San-Francisco-based Crunchyroll, Inc., with Venrock General Partner David Siminoff joining Crunchyroll's board of directors. Several websites that report on federal regulatory filings covered the investment in brief. Full Article: AnimeNewsNetwork UPDATE Funimation and Bandai Entertainment responds to CrunchyRoll's $4M funding Funimation has been carefully monitoring the activities of crunchyroll.com for some time. Since 2006 Funimation has provided several letters notifying the site's operators of copyright infringement issues in connection with content that has been made available through this site. To date, crunchyroll.com has complied with FUNimation's demands to remove the applicable content. Bandai Entertainment Inc. announced today that it echoes Funimation's concerns over copyright infringement by sites that illegally stream anime. Bandai Entertainment Inc. also informed the website crunchyroll.com to remove content that infringed on its copyrights and furthermore has been working with licensors in Japan, educating them about the pervasive illegal downloading and streaming of anime that has negatively impacted the market. Bandai Entertainment absolutely agrees with Funimation's assertion that this is an epidemic that will undermine the future of the anime business in Japan and the United States. Full Article: AnimeNewsNetwork UPDATE Gonzo contacts CrunchyRoll The main administrator of Crunchyroll, a video-streaming website with many unauthorized anime videos, has said in an online post that the Gonzo/GDH anime production company contacted the site. According to Crunchyroll, the two companies have been "trading ideas about what we can do together so everyone will benefit." In his post, the adminstrator added a cover image of a dialogue recording script for episode #1 ("The Giant Tower of Druaga") of The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk fantasy anime series. Gonzo will premiere this game-based anime in Japan on April 4. On the recording script is a signature of Taichi Hashimoto, a producer on Rosario + Vampire, Speed Grapher, and other Gonzo works. Full Article: AnimeNewsNetwork |
CrystalMar 13, 2008 1:55 PM
| Good for them who like to stream for whatever reason or can't download torrents. I don't really care, torernts ftw. |
 staff.applications ▼ guidelines.faq ▼ report.abuse ▼ thx.skittles ▼ thx.kina ▼ [H+] ³ ▼ |
cyruz said: I don't really care, torernts ftw. Torernts indeed. Anyways, I guess that's cool. Personally I don't really like CrunchyRoll, though. |
| Torernts, yep torernts are win. Never bothered streaming anime much anyway. Nice thing for Crunchyroll though. |
     我爱你 |
| torrents Ftw~ cyruz said: I don't really care, torernts ftw. |
 I signed my screen and now its all smeary "When you meet your God tell him to leave me alone." check out my bloghttp://corpse69.wordpress.com/ fix MAL already |
| So no one think it to be strange that a site is able to get investors despite the fact that it distributes anime illegally (even if they are 'trying' to change that) not to mention that the fansubs there belong to the subbers and you know how fansubbers dislike those pay to download sites where people are making money from their subs (and the Japanese producer's anime of course). |
MoveThatBus said: I use crunchyroll sometimes when I really want to see an ep. I only use it if i want to see a mediocre anime that has already finished airing. I usually stick to torrents though! |
| Once they start streaming h.264 at the same quality as downloads, then I'll care. |
    Sam is my sweet peach |
| I use streams when I want to see something that has finished airing and the torrents are inactive. Never tried Cruncyroll though. |
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| Read this yesterday. Yup, I knew something's gonna happen to crunchyroll but US $4 M is outrageous. If it becomes a first legit pay streaming site (or downloadable anime media) maybe not too shabby on their part, except now they're still selling free fansubs under some kind of copyright they claimed - in addition to fansub themselves being a big slap in the face of NA companies. Guess I'm just going to eat popcorn for this. I'm not a torrent users (I blame it to my modem/router) but in this day and age, it's too easy to get animu even without torrent as long as they're still hot, but crunchy-crunch do take out licensed series. |
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Crystal said: My thoughts exactly. Why would an investor put money in something that's illegal? Moreover, what does a site like that need to do with over $4 mil? Are they planning to license anime or something? :SSo no one think it to be strange that a site is able to get investors despite the fact that it distributes anime illegally (even if they are 'trying' to change that) not to mention that the fansubs there belong to the subbers and you know how fansubbers dislike those pay to download sites where people are making money from their subs (and the Japanese producer's anime of course). |
| wow :O i use crunchyroll almost most of the time >< nv heard news like tis before :X |
lalafeng said: wow :O i use crunchyroll almost most of the time >< nv heard news like tis before :X Same here |
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| Meh. I still don't really like the shitty quality in Crunchyroll though. Crystal said: So no one think it to be strange that a site is able to get investors despite the fact that it distributes anime illegally (even if they are 'trying' to change that) not to mention that the fansubs there belong to the subbers and you know how fansubbers dislike those pay to download sites where people are making money from their subs (and the Japanese producer's anime of course). Agreed, it's really weird. o.o |
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| I've only used Crunchyroll for 1 anime series and I thought it was pretty crap. More anime fans should switch to torrents (>_<). |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| Never used Crunchyroll (even though I have an account there). Stream sites and anime aren't a good combination, imo (unless it's a kick ass quality stream =P). cyruz said: I don't really care, torernts ftw. Yeah, torernts ftw! =P |
lalafeng said: Me neither....Even though I haven't been there as much as of late.wow :O i use crunchyroll almost most of the time >< nv heard news like tis before :X |
MomoHime125Mar 12, 2008 6:17 AM
 Current Avatar: Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke |
| Pay and legit? You mean pay for free fansubs that are not legit... that will never happen. |
 "I'll go crazy by the end of the year" - K Fu's comment while doing Proofs and Number Theory in Advanced Higher Maths |
| I have no idea how any company could invest in a clearly ILLEGAL practice. *doesn't get it* Japanese companies need to get their acts together and shut down sites like Crunchyroll. |
| im sticking to veoh |
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| Maybe they plan to make it legal. Anyway, Crunchy is a great place to find old school anime, that would be hard to torrent. And it's free. So i don't find it any less imoral, then torrents and DD uploads. I thought for the longest time, it really was run by Shinji, some asian pop-culture enthusaist. I'm surprised there's a firm, with a board of directors, behind it. |
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inugami said: I thought for the longest time, it really was run by Shinji, some asian pop-culture enthusaist. I'm surprised there's a firm, with a board of directors, behind it. Yes... People who are getting money off content that should be available for free? Way to go... :/ |
"I'll go crazy by the end of the year" - K Fu's comment while doing Proofs and Number Theory in Advanced Higher Maths |
| I guess capitalism makes its own rules... Crunchyroll=iilegal. end of story |
| 'only the dead have seen the end of war' Plato listen to the whispers of your ghost  |
| The venture capitalist likely offered them the money because of CR's user base not because they thought they had a solid business going. Of course I would not be surprised if CR was now able to license on the cheap many of their older anime series. That is though if they wish to go legit. It could very well be that they plan on not doing anything since really the fact still remains that no one has ever been sued for pirating anime. PS: Having a board of directors and being incorporated requires likely more then a hundred bucks and some names. Extremely easy compared to the fact that the owner is now not liable for their business. |
| crunchyroll's getting out of hand, but I'm only there for the anime. Whatever is free left anyway. But yeah, quite surprising with the whole "board of directors". It is not even of professional standard. Next thing we know, we need to pay to even step into that site T__T;; Even if it's shut down, there is still other sites to visit. Just an opinion of streamers like me, those who are lazy to download/torrent. lol |
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| I joined crunchyroll when it first came out, and my 'new' pc was broken at the time and I had to use my older PC with only a 14gb hard drive. So I had to go to streaming. Back then, Crunchyroll was just made by a guy that was in college. o_O; But now it's a company? o.O; wtf... I wonder what happened to the guy who created it.. is he still there....? |
| I never minded CR Uh however you can stream H624 from there. you just have to pay to get that stream.. |
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| Which is a ripoff if you ask me. At least when Shinji ran it, it wasn't mandatory, and it was a "donation" to help pay for his servers and stuff like that. That, I could understand. |
| I justed used crunchyroll on my ps3 when my computer was down. Haven't really been on much since then. |
| Something about this deal doesn't make sense. |
| wat? theres a board of directors?????i thought it was run by like this guy in college who had nothing better to do >.< BUT 4 MIL???????WTF??????thats just ridiculous.......... |
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| I like crunchyroll for all the asian dramas. Because drama files are so much larger than anime ones (often over 700MB each), I like to sample an episode or two on there before deciding to invest the time to torrent it. |
| Like Shoujo? Visit: Emily's Random Shoujo Manga Page |
| I find the idea of paying for someone's hard, free work is absurd. It's the reason I'll never pay for a streaming site or buy a bootleg. Lol @ people profiting from the stupidity of the human race. |
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TheWestExit said: Once they start streaming h.264 at the same quality as downloads, then I'll care. qft to this. I guess I should say good for them though because Crunchyroll is really where I found my passion for anime. I left them soon after however because the passion lead to the discovery of torrents and fansubs, etc. |
| I've used it a few times to see what a show looked like before downloading it. I hate Veoh. I miss Stage6 SO much... |
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| It's a pretty good little site if you wanna squeeze in a couple of eps on your lunch break. |
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| This is really surprising since, a couple of times before, I would've thought that the Site would die. Especially when the US Distributors contacted Shinji (Creator of CR) to take down the shows licensed in the North America. well, as a former user of the site, all I can say is I wish them well. |
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Nadeshiko said: lalafeng said: wow :O i use crunchyroll almost most of the time >< nv heard news like tis before :X Same here Yeah me too |
| Woa I love Crunchyroll, I use it alot of times when I watch series that finished airing and I can't find torrent of. They quality isn't that great but the whole site is very easy to use... so organized. Anyway never heard of these news but good for them, this site is awesome and until it will be taken down (hope not) they should make the best out of it. ^^ |
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| Updated the first post! And Funimation responds! I wonder what Viz is gonna say. :3 Funimation responds to CrunchyRoll's $4M funding Funimation has been carefully monitoring the activities of crunchyroll.com for some time. Since 2006 Funimation has provided several letters notifying the site's operators of copyright infringement issues in connection with content that has been made available through this site. To date, crunchyroll.com has complied with FUNimation's demands to remove the applicable content. Full Article: AnimeNewsNetwork |
| this is creating a mixed message... we have complaints from anime companies, authors, and now a website that posted illegal *coughfreecough* material is getting tons of bux... |
| This angers me. they do not deserve this money. I agree with Xinil and crystal here... WTF? (and a few others who agreed) |
Hawaiian420 said: LOL this so stupid, lets fund a streaming site with tons of illegal content I do not understand why they would even want to accept the funding. This cannot be goood. |
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| Profiting off of some unrelated fansub group's work AND making it mandatory to pay for high quality? CrunchyRoll is a bunch of rip-off artists. And that is why I use torrents instead of streaming. You can find nearly ANY anime if you know the right places to check for torrents, though someone on irc asked me to help find an ancient one I'd never heard of once and I could only find it in Spanish after days of searching. :P |
| | Suikoden Fan Club[/right] |
| I am assuming that Crunchyroll, in the near future, will slowly delete all licensed anime from their site. |
| Crunchyroll fails. Though the response of Funimation and Bandai are funny. |
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| Wow, and that flv is fail (their compression and audio sucks, and obviously you don't want to pay) and people who don't use torrents or even irc xdcc bots makes me worry about the world. :P Funny how "Venrock" like, doesn't know exactly how illegal the site basically is. I also agree with how Crunchyroll is making money off fansubbers that offer services for free. Speaking of which, I should walk over Crunchyroll headquaters and say grats. :D |
 Damnit! Don't die without my permission! |
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