Is pirating/illegally streaming anime wrong?

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).

Stuff like visual novels would definitely not be popular now if it wasn't for pirating.

Xarvyn said:
I pay for things like Shonen Jump issues and Crunchyroll.

When Crunchyroll doesn't stream something that I wanted it to stream, I end up turning to the illegal streaming thing.

I think pirating/illegally streaming anime is wrong, but I still do it. Not the pirating, I leave that to other people.



Everything else is right, but it does hurt the industry, that people are illegally streaming anime for free instead of buying the actual product for it. Even though anime and visual novels got popular from pirating, most people are going to use the pirated product instead of the actual one.

Observers, including series director David Petrarca and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said illegal downloads did not hurt the series' prospects, as it benefited from the resulting "buzz" and social commentary, while the high rates of piracy did not significantly translate to lost subscriptions. According to Polygon, HBO's relatively relaxed attitude towards piracy and sharing login credentials amounted to a "free-to-play" model for premium television. At a debate at the Oxford Union in 2015, series co-creator David Benioff stated he was just glad people are watching the show. He claimed that the illegaly downloaded copies of the show sometimes captivate viewers enough to make them eventually buy a copy of the show later on anyway, especially in countries where the show does not officially air on television. D. B. Weiss responded with mixed feelings, saying the show costs a lot of money to produce and "if it doesn't make the money back, then it ceases to exist" but on the other hand also enjoying the fact that many people "enjoy the show so much they can't wait to get their hands on it."

Waifusexual said:
Yes. So is illegally streaming and downloading porn, but idgaf

Hoppy said:


Who buys porn anymore?

Hoppy said:


Who buys porn anymore?

_Charl said:

dats no biggie
cuz u fap into animu characters, not 3d gals

HaXXspetten said:
I fap to underage anime girls on a daily basis

Zergneedsfood said:
I was raised in darkness, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding.

bobzanny said:
I really don't know but I got my CR subscription so that helps...I hope.

Hoppy said:


Who buys porn anymore?

offmodel said:
I have a lot of thoughts of this, but I don't want to get too long winded (maybe I'll write a blog post sometime), so I'll try to keep it short. There are four issues to consider with piracy, I think.

1. What are anime/manga to you? Are they valuable art forms that help you get through your crappy day at school/work, deal with problems in your life, maybe have some kind of message that speaks to you, or just generally entertain or challenge you? Or, are they just "stupid chinese cartoons you can get for free" as ichii_1 put it well when he criticized the attitude that is increasingly popular (especially on youtube) that it's a terrible medium we should only like ironically, the other day?
2. If they are valuable to you, do you think you should support the artists and the people who get these shows localized in your language, if they are licensed? I get why people who don't think anime/manga have merit and call it a horrible medium don't think this, but if you do love it, don't you want your favorite mangaka, or writer, or character designer to be able to earn a living wage and produce more works that you will enjoy? And, don't you want people like a Toren Smith who are passionate and capable to be involved in bringing those anime/manga to you for years to come?

I read an interview with Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue (regardless of what you think of that band, he made a good point) that sums it up pretty well, talking about how while big bands like his can survive, new artists will find it tough to make a living as musicians because everyone thinks they are greedy:

I also read a quote from Korn's drummer Ray Luzier that is pretty relevant (and sad).

3. There was, contrary to what people seem to think, never a time in the history of home video that everyone bought everything they watched. The difference is that the death of video stores, who bought a lot of movies and series, has hurt disc sales since renters moved onto streaming/piracy, while advertisers have yet to jump onboard with streaming in a big way. You might say, "See, why should I legally stream anything when it doesn't help that much?" One solution to this is pay only services like Netflix, who are testing the waters with anime right now. They could be a major player in financing new series in the way that Cartoon Network once did with The Big O and IGPX - if this proves successful for them over the long haul. And, if it works for them, Hulu and others may just jump on the bandwagon as well.
4. There needs to be a distinction between subbing unlicensed shows and ripping streams/subs, because there is a vast different there - regardless of how you feel about it ethically. Live-eviL subbing Queen Millennia and HS ripping CR streams are not even close to being comparable. I have no problem with someone downloading true fansubs (I do it myself all the time), or even downloading shows that are abandoned (if you haven't seen The Big O, go pirate it right now).

All that said, I think everyone has to individually decide how important the medium is to them, and how important a given anime/manga is to them also. If you value it, and want to see your favorite mangaka, writer, character designer, studio, whoever keep producing the things you love, don't you want them to be able keep on doing it from a financial standpoint?

_Charl said:
Of course.

offmodel said:

I never said it was a distribution issue, I said it was an issue of people not valuing the work of artists or the concept of ownership. I think Steam is one of the worst things to happen to gaming, although I think GOG is a good platform.


I wish more people would tell Ray (and other artists) that to their face.

Drunk_Samurai said:


The only thing that Steam did bad was make physical releases of games shitty. Either way if the anime industry wants to make a profit they'll need to make a system like that because more people want to buy digitally now. Also I would tell that to them since it's both a legal thing and a dictionary definition thing. Copying isn't taking.