Recent reports have announced that Crunchyroll, the largest anime streaming service, will be replacing Aegisub with Israeli Software, OOONA, to produce subtitles more efficiently. Anime fans across the world are disappointed with this collaboration due to Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians (via a report by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry).

Crunchyroll is also ignoring the needs of groups who require Closed Captions to understand the scenes better. They are isolating a large chunk of their audience in favor of AI-based subtitling, which defeats the point of a streaming service. Overall, this hasn’t been a great year for Crunchyroll, and this won’t be the end of it.

EDIT: Link was taken down thanks to someone in the comments here’s the archive for the page https://web.archive.org/web/20251004184506/https://fandomwire.com/crunchyroll-faces-cancelation-why-anime-fans-are-choosing-piracy-after-latest-update/

https://bsky.app/profile/lamhfada.bsky.social/post/3m2c3udxnjc2u

  • WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    62
    ·
    edit-2
    6 days ago

    When property is valued over people, piracy is protest. Pirating undermines a system that guards profit while neglecting humanity. Every download is a refusal to accept laws that protect wealth over well-being.

  • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    46
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    6 days ago

    And the Spotify ceo just stepped down so he could focus on weapons systems for Israel. The people running all of our media services are Nazis.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      edit-2
      6 days ago

      Fascism is the natural end stage of capitalism. Plenty of businesses that have no core connection and competency with the military are embedding themselves into the military. For now, most of the US top brass loathe the Trump administration, but eventually they will be replaced by loyalists. We might get a real life Enclave if something isn’t done to rid the fascists.

  • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    107
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    7 days ago

    All the streaming services are unethical now, both in pricing and operation. Netflix is maybe the least bad, but I can’t justify the cost for that, either.

    Stremio + Torrentio is the way to go.

    What happens next is like what happened in the 2000s. People will turn to piracy as legitimate content is no longer feasible, affordable, or ethical. Then the corporate oligarchs will crack down violently to make examples of the people they’ve given no other choice or recourse.

    It’s time to eat the rich.

    • BlackAura@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      7 days ago

      Netflix charges me, a single guy, for 4 simultaneous streams if I want 4k. So I shared with my parents.

      Then they had the audacity to stop people from password sharing or to charge even more if you want to share. I set up an automatic email forward so my parents get every sign in related email.

    • Foreigner@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      5 days ago

      Netflix is training AI on the work of the artists in the animation department. They’re absolutely not the least bad, they’re all equally terrible.

    • gramie@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      16
      ·
      7 days ago

      people they’ve given no other choice or recourse

      I don’t know, I find I also have the option to not consume media that I can’t pay for or justify ethically. For instance, the only streaming service we have a subscription for is The Criterion Channel.

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        7 days ago

        I’m looking for an ethical anime streaming service rn, and i’d be willing to pay for it (like, $10/month). Any options at all?

        Like, “ethical” means that the money is used to keep the studio running that is producing the anime; not that the money goes to some big banks to profit off anime.

      • Jhex@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        7 days ago

        Good for you, but Oovid opened my eyes to how different our living conditions are.

        Some people may have may many alternatives, some few and some none

      • FalseTautology@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        7 days ago

        Even if you make good money, it is still ethically questionable to support predatory practices and financially reward the objectively evil. Piracy is ethically neutral at worst and can easily be interpreted as a net positive, at least where it comes to most media. I deliberately choose to support some obscure stuff with my dollar because I want its creators to succeed and my conscience is clean.

  • lightnegative@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    5 days ago

    Ahh good ol’ Aegisub. I have great memories of subtitling anime in my late teens before I got a girlfriend and the fansub scene died when Crunchyroll took over.

    I was also one of the people helping test Aegisub on Linux (2009-ish), I wasn’t a programmer at the time but I remember a dude called ‘verm’ in the IRC channel who did a bunch of work to make Aegisub stable on Linux. He taught me the difference between little endian and big endian, I guess he was bored that day

  • Erik L. Midtsveen 🏴🌈@lemmy.wtf
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    59
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    7 days ago

    The whole “calling out Israel for genocide means you’re antisemitic” line is so worn out and honestly just exhausting. Israel has spent like 4+ decades trying desperately to associate criticism of israel with antisemitism.

    I’ve been boycotting Crunchyroll for years, and I’m not stopping anytime soon.

    “Piracy is a human right, collective ownership of the seas, comrades!” — Erik L. Midtsveen

    • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      6 days ago

      Maybe instead of everyone calling it isreal and palestine, they should say the isreali government and innocent people.

      They should say Netanyahu is committing genocide.

      Saying israel instead of directly naming the culprits is sort of like when people say antifa. In the case of antifa it makes bad actors able to demonise the word and make it seem like a bad thing, so it can be used to twist peoples minds and make them think its a bad thing.

      In the case of this genocide, it dehumanises the people committing the atrocities and diverts blame to the word instead of the people. Which has the effect of people like Netanyahu being able to reassociate the word with the israeli people and the jews.

      So it absolutely isnt antisemitic to say israel is committing genocide, but it is unhelpful to divert the blame from the real asshats in charge.

      • Aljernon@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        5 days ago

        Genocide is wildly popular in Israel right now

        "Dubbed the “Sderot cinema” by Israelis online, watching Israel’s bombardment has become a popular pastime; people take turns looking through tower viewers. Some bring popcorn and snacks, and some snap selfies as the thud of airstrikes echo in the distance.

        “When I look at Gaza from here and see buildings still standing, it makes me upset. … I want Israel to continue until it’s all flattened,” Rafael Hemo, an onlooker told CNN."

        Edit fixed link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/global-outrage-has-grown-after-two-years-of-bombardment-in-gaza-in-israel-it-is-a-different-story/ar-AA1NSQWj

        • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          6 days ago

          Ok, but fascism is wildly popular in the USA right now. Would you make the same argument there?

          Or, like me, are you more inclined towards believing that more likely a few terrible people in power have sway with a vast number of easily led racists and that mischaracterises the whole country?

          • Aljernon@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            6 days ago

            Ok, but fascism is wildly popular in the USA right now.

            Yes, we’re a fascist country now.

            But more to the point, brining up a country that was founded on Genocide of Native Americans to argue that we shouldn’t speak ill of a country founded on Genocide of Palestinians is wild.

            a few terrible people in power have sway with a vast number of easily led racists

            This describes both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Again, weird take unless you’re pushing for us to drop the Nazi label from 1933-1945 Germany.

                • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  5 days ago

                  Ok, so, you are not a fascist country, you are a country run by fascists with fascists in it. But this doesn’t represent the values of the entire population. Especially when trump rigged the election (by his own admission) that means that not even the majority are fascists. And then you have to exclude all those who voted for trump because they were duped by his campaign who aren’t fascist and are just more republican and 4ight leaning than left.

                  I feel the same way about israel and palestine. We are quick to speak to the separation of hamas and palestine as a whole, but when it comes to israel, the same voices are shouting its the whole country and not just a genocidal organisation and their followers.

                  I think its an important distinction.

          • AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            6 days ago

            I mean… yeah? It’s not really much of a mischaracterization if it’s true. At one point you have to accept that the we’re the baddies as a US citizen.

      • pulsewidth@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 days ago

        What makes you think that relabelling Palestinians as ‘innocent people’ to prevent Netanyahu and his fascists from their Doublethink redirection of genocide to only be relevant to Jews but not Palestinians would work? They would immediately reframe ‘innocent people’ as Hamas-embedded terrorist supporters - they already do it. The better action is to call out the truth (Israel is committing genocide) and say it loudly as much as possible, one of many benefits is that businesses and artists and people don’t actually want to be associated with a genocide and we’re seeing that impact daily.

        When people say “Israel is committing genocide” they mean the government of Israel, it is implied. It is silly to extrapolate it to blame for every man woman and child in Israel. Just as it would be silly to pin it down to only Netanyahu when he is the PM of far-right government with thousands of people directly supporting and enabling his actions, and is Israel’s longest serving prime minister - voted in multiple times by clear majority in elections, so while only he and his government are accountable to their actions, a large swathe of Israel is responsible for him being there.

        Just as when people say “the USA has just bombed Iran unprovoked” they clearly mean the current government of the USA has taken this action - not just Trump, and also not some kid playing basketball in Philadelphia.

        • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 days ago

          Thats a fine argument, and i agree with you. But I’m not talking about people who understand the implication behind naming the country and not the individuals. I am specifically saying that there are swathes of people who hear the word israel and its not a government, its not a country, its a terrorist, its a more abstract scary monster thing and for those people, it shifts blame from the government, to the country as a whole. Just like what happened with antifa. Antifa doesnt mean anti fascist to idiots. It means terrorist.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    55
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    I would very much like a streaming service that makes it transparent what it actually spends its income on.

    Like - a streaming service where i pay $10/month and 90% of that goes to the studios/artists that actually produce the anime? I would take that.

    But right now i’m worried that i pay $10/month and 90% of that goes to the shareholders of the streaming provider as “profit” while the studio gets almost nothing.

      • TWeaK@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 days ago

        Lol, I’m sure it’s a good book and Cory Doctorow is well renowned, but I can’t help but think: “Defeat Chokepoint Capitalism by buying our book right now!”

        • utopiah@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          6 days ago

          And ironically enough even though most book by Doctorow might be DRM-free, maybe this one is, I can’t remember.

          If you want I give you a free TL;DR: it’s not just monopolies, it’s also monopsies. When we feel trapped by buying with Amazon we often forget that authors often have the same feeling. So the “chokepoint” is not 1-sided but 2-sided.

    • fodor@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 days ago

      Get thee to The Pirate Bay and send your direct donations on the side.

  • BilSabab@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    7 days ago

    why not just pirate shit without a noble cause for once? You know - the old fashioned way

    • Aljernon@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      6 days ago

      Old Fashioned Pirates were poor people treated like shit by their society lashing out at the system of oppression.

    • IronBird@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      7 days ago

      what are the good sources nowadays…been out of the game for awhile and it’s to trust any sites promoted on any mainstreamish social networks.

      like freemediaheckyeah, old reddit hub…is that still good?

      ime every pirate source had 50/50 shot of turning into some virus/scam honeypot shortly after reaching high enough popularity

      • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        7 days ago

        I just bookmark the piracy megathread/wiki thingy, lemmy/reddit (backup). For streaming, I would probably recommend hydra, it’s really all the same but that site has “auto-next” which I prefer. There was one site I used to enjoy that was just better than any streaming platform I’ve paid for, skip intro, skip credits (would even detect after credit scenes), subtitles in all languages and audio tracks even commentary, quick responsive high quality loading of any media your mind can remember. They went after it hard and I haven’t seen a proper iteration since (every clone slowly lost features as they were whack-a-moling).

        For downloading, they’re really all crappy (several link hoops to jump through) and hit or miss (for quality and selection you can’t beat the ease of a torrent unfortunately). You can find what you want eventually but the difference in hassle is just crazy.

        • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 days ago

          i used to stream pirated some shows and a movie last decade, then they took down all those sites, i dont download.

      • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        6 days ago

        I mean, I basically just download anything that’s not an executable. So if its a video, audio, pdf, epub, etc… I don’t worry about it. Its very rare for an updated system to get infected from a random .mkv.

        I just use (https://fmhy.net/torrenting) one of the torrenting aggregators because its the most comprehensive search, I found an anime that I couldn’t find anywhere else because there are dead torrents with no seeders everywhere else I looked.

  • RedFrank24@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    6 days ago

    The problem here is that all these major anime providers are owned by Sony, so you’re kinda fucked if you want to boycott them.

  • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    7 days ago

    Ha fuck… that was my last personal sub… any alternative beside the high seas? I’m seasick…

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 days ago

      Honestly, piracy is easier than it ever has been. You can automate torrents or usenet downloads with the *arr suite. There’s a bit of a learning curve to get it set up… But once it’s running, it’s basically just “add show to your watchlist” and ~15 minutes later it shows up on your media list with full metadata, subtitles, etc ready to go.

      Plenty of people will suggest stremio, which is… Contentious. It works for streaming by downloading a torrent to cache. After you watch it, stremio automatically deletes the cache. So in day to day operation, it uses very little hard drive space and primarily relies on your internet speed and properly seeded torrents. But that latter part is the problem… Since it deletes the cache, it isn’t actually seeding anything in return. If everyone used stremio, nobody would actually be able to use it, because none of the torrents would be seeded. It’s a sort of mass prisoner’s dilemma.

      Technically, you can set stremio to keep a rolling cache of {x} size, and it will hold onto the torrents until you start to download something new and it needs that space. But very few people will expect to hit a 1.0 ratio, even with a decently sized cache.

      • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        7 days ago

        The whole point is not to do any setup and maintenance just to watch anime… I already have a job where I have to do that and I was hoping that it would pay for the convenience. My passion is watching anime, not setup downloading pipeline for them.

        • JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          7 days ago

          The point of the setup is you only need to do it once, you don’t set up everything every time you want to download something…

            • dil@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              7 days ago

              Google stremio + realdebrid, it’s all spelled out step by step on many guides, you basically download the app (on pc, android, tvs) add community repos, add torrentio, click customize, paste your real debrid api key and you’re done. Past that you can pick extensions like marvels or other torrent addons to add categories and other sources.

              Real debrid you pay like 6$ a month for, it automatically dloads the torrent when you click it or grabs from its cache (almost always cached/downloaded by others)Makes stremio run as fast/smooth as netflix/hulu/etc.

              Stremio auto tracks what is watched, keeps history/playback time accurately. It’s basically how kodi addons used to be as it’s own smoother app.

              • JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                7 days ago

                Never heard of stremio, sounds like it plays the role of a media server, in which case it doesn’t have to be streamio? Plex or Jellyfin could work too

                • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  7 days ago

                  Stremio is the “downloader” and the “streamer”, so it’s both. Plex and Jellyfin require you to download beforehand.

        • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          7 days ago

          Lol I can just add it to my phone’s torrent client when I have a plan to watch something, then later begin download when I have wifi (or if you have unlimited high speed data, that also works… sort of…), usually like before bed when the phone is plugged in, then wake up and its done downloading.

          You can pre-download the next thing you plan to watch before you finish your current thing. Same for TV Shows and movies.

          If you don’t use your phone for work, you can also just leave it charging and use their wifi (with VPN obviously) to torrent then come come and have it ready to watch, usually unless it has low seeders.

          Watch using VLC.

          (Afaik, there’s no torrent client on iOS, so this is Android only… we’ll see what happens with Android torrent clients after 2027… it works for now)

          (That’s the simplist thing to do. You can also remote into a computer,but that’s a bit more complicated.)

        • kadu@scribe.disroot.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          7 days ago

          There are classical, “best of all time”, titles that an anime lover like you would defintely enjoy. They’re not available on Crunchyroll, they’re not on Amazon Prime, Netflix, you can’t purchase a copy. A few had selected censored releases in VHS, good luck hunting them down.

          The thing with piracy is that it’s not just a money saving trick used by teenagers, it’s also the only way to truly watch the media you enjoy regardless of what some media conglomerate thinks - they no longer get to define how, when and what you’re going to watch. You have to do a bit of setup once… yes that sucks, but from that point onwards, you’re free.

          • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            7 days ago

            Those I have, some literally on VHS :) When I was young we had a monthly or weekly VHS of best anime from France which I subscribed to. I like some recent stuff that’s very much available on Crunchyroll though plus it’s an easy way to stay aware of releases and such.

        • dil@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          7 days ago

          Then you pay for it? Plain and simple. You pay for that convenience.

          • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            7 days ago

            I am paying for it… it becomes tricky when the disagreement isn’t on price but on replacing fellow human with AI from a country with genocidal tendencies. That’s where I draw my line I guess.

      • dil@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        7 days ago

        No one reccomends stremio without real debrid, makes it instant like netflix

      • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        7 days ago

        There’s always torrents but it was very convenient to just go to crunchy and start something… torrenting and putting it in plex and all… it’s just less convenient

        • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          7 days ago

          They took our comments and reviews, now they’re ruining subtitles, are delayed, etc. The arr stack is starting to be just as convenient if not more.

          Lord Gaben said it best, piracy is a service problem, not a pricing problem (the people who couldn’t afford it weren’t going to buy it anyway).

          • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            7 days ago

            You’re right about comments and reviews… I miss some of that. You’re also right quoting the old Gaben. But still… it seems we can’t keep any nice things for long :-/

            • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              6 days ago

              Has he actually changed his stance on piracy? I hadn’t see anything to indicate that but maybe I’m mistaken.

        • aphonefriend@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          7 days ago

          Look into setting up an -arr stack. Overseer with radar/sonaar plus your torrent client of choice and a VPN. The setup takes a weekend at most and the final product is honestly easier to use then navigating shitty streaming services now. It actually is more convenient after just a little bit of setup.

          • a4ng3l@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            7 days ago

            I was doing usenet more than 10yrs ago… not that straightforward, needs a subscription anyway… and the whole NAS + plex or something similar is still needed. I get the idea but there’s a point in life where 10€ per month for the ease of use is very appealing.

    • Toes♀@ani.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      7 days ago

      Hidive is probably the last good one, unless something changed in recent times.

  • arararagi@ani.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    6 days ago

    As far as I know we don’t even have fansubs anymore, any group nowadays is just a rip of whatever streaming has the anime, current anime if it’s not picked up by any streaming will get no subs, the streaming giants were successful and embracing it and enshitifying.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    7 days ago

    Funnily enough, i was considering just today whether i should re-open my old Crunchyroll account. But i guess i won’t do it now after all. IIRC there’s been a streak of bad press about crunchyroll; like, this today isn’t the only issue.