Are anime streaming sites legal?


I don't think it should concern me, but I am still curious as to how legal
anime streaming sites are. A popular site being AnimeUltima, I've watched
probably 300+ different anime just from there. However, when asked if the site
I use is legal, I usually respond with, "yes," despite not knowing the answer;
this is sort of annoying in itself.

AnimeUltima as an example, is this site legally subbing and uploading anime?




The main legal anime streaming site I am aware of is
[Crunchyroll](http://www.crunchyroll.com/), a pay for service. If not the only
legal one, it certainly is the largest.

They actually work with the broadcasters in Japan in order to bring the shows
to people across the globe, pretty much at the same time they are being
broadcast in Japan.

Many sources of streaming anime (including AnimeUltima) are actually rips of
Crunchyroll and other legitimate sources.




There are a number of legal streaming sites:
[Crunchyroll](http://www.crunchyroll.com/),
[Funimation](http://www.funimation.com/), [Manga
Entertainment](http://www.manga.com/), [Daisuki](https://www.daisuki.net/)
(which is relatively new), and some Youtube channels associated with legal
sites (such as Funimation or Manga Entertainment), possibly among some other
sites that I haven't heard of yet or am not completely sure about. Some of
these are very region-specific (e.g. a lot of Funimation videos on Youtube
can't be accessed outside of North America (I think)).

Most other streaming sites (including some pretty popular ones, it seems) are
actually not legal (using, as stated by @Oded, rips of videos from elsewhere,
illegal fansubs, etc.).

