Crunchyroll Secures 4 Million Dollar Investment by Illegally Distributing Anime

Websites including Dealipedia and the Private Equity Hub have reported that Venture capital firm Venrock has invested $4.05 million into the San-Francisco based Crunchyroll, Inc. video streaming website. The management of the Crunchyroll site uploads and provides a large amount of subtitled anime and Asian live action programing without authorization from the legal copyright owners of the programing or the consent of the translators responsible for subtitling the programing. Crunchyroll’s video programing is accessible free in low quality. The site charges membership fees for access to high quality video streams.

Crunchyroll reportedly does host a small amount of Asian video programing with official authorization from copyright owners and reportedly “intends to work directly with ‘a select number of Japanese firms’ to acquire content legally.”

Source: Anime News Network