Even if anime fans have the premium membership of Crunchyroll and Funimation, accessing the full catalog of anime is next to impossible. What do fans do then? They look for unofficial means to watch anime (not recommended).
Many illegal pirate websites and apps are making profit from providing access to anime content. Recently, many of these illegal anime apps reported that they have received a copyright notice from Funimation Group. Copyright notice states that either you shut down the illegal service or further action will be taken against you.
Why Funimation is sending copyright strikes now?
Recently, the Funimation Global Group bought Crunchyroll. Now both Funimation and Crunchyroll are owned by Sony. The company. Sony is known for issuing huge amount of copyright strikes to pirate content websites.
Production companies are investing a lot of money in producing anime. So, obviously they would want to protect their content. That is why Funimation hired a company called CoSearch, which started sending these warning messages to anime apps and websites.
Anime apps that got DMCA notice
It is not yet clear that how many anime apps have gotten DMCA notice, but some apps have openly admitted that they received a notice from CoSearch to shut down. These apps include Taiyaki, Anime Glare, Shiro, Project Kamyroll and Yukino.
Taiyaki DMCA takedown
Taiyaki is one of the first that got notice from CoSearch to either shut down or face further charges. Below is the screenshot of the notice received:
The app is not taken down. The operator of the app wrote:
“This app is now closed. Unfortunately, it was hit with a DMCA by the monarchy company known as Funimation”
Shiro
Another anime app “Shiro” also reported that they received DMCA takedown from Funimation Global Group via CoSearch. The notice included that failure to comply with this notification will result in further activity against you.
Shiro developer said: “I just received a DMCA takedown notice from Funimation and I’ll therefore cease all development on the Shiro app. All other developers should probably private their sh*t asap as this company [Corsearch] is hired specifically for DMCA notices”
Anime Glare
Another app “Anime Glare” informed their users that they will be shutting down because of copyright notices. Here is what they wrote on their platform:
“Everyone must be wondering why AnimeGlare is not working and why can’t they reach us, well, I don’t know how to tell you this bad news, but AnimeGlare recently received a letter from’ Cease & Desist ‘from’ Funimation Global Group, LLC’, which means that we are forced to close all trades immediately”
Future of ILLEGAL anime apps and websites
Now if you are wondering “Will other apps and website taken down as well?”. The short answer is no, but if these DMCA takedowns continue, it will make life difficult for these pirate apps and websites.
1 year ago, one of the largest pirate websites was taken down due to copyright strikes from Japan.
Watching anime from unofficial means not only hurts the big companies, but the authors of the series as well. We should support the original author by watching from legal websites. There are many anime Youtube channels that are providing free anime to fans. They are constantly increasing their catalogue as well.
Also check out our article about Demon Slayer Season 2 release date.
Source: Torrentfreak
In my country (india) netflix, crunchyroll library is too short i was unable to find some series in them that’s why we have to use illegal sources but if they provide big library to us users so we can watch it in crunchyroll or netflix in whatever platform they give us access full library of anime.
Bruh, if it’s not available, doesn’t means you should pirate the anime. I mean yeah we all want to watch the series we love, but the thing is anime is coming back to India. Just give it some time to get here. It’s kinda same as a bollywood movie releasing and after 6 months or so it also broadcasts in nomal channels. Don’t blame the short catalogue of anime to pirate anime.
And also most anime are made for the Japanese people first and afterwords is distributed to the country they think is profitable to send to. If the anime you want don’t air in india that means they think there’s no market for that series in india. Make a petition for the said anime to bring their attention for the siad issue or contact them via any means you find. By them I mean the studio that produced the perticular anime. Piracy may seem harmless to some. But in actuality it is like bed bugs to the people behind the anime you love and care.
well in my country morocco funimation is not available and crunchyroll doesn’t work that good besides asking my parents for a 50 to 100 dirhams just to watch anime is totally out of the question so what am i supposed to do
If they would provide us legal sites or apps I will definitely be a member. In my country we don’t even have crunchyroll!!