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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?


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2014-05-30T09:54:29.233
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2018-07-18T04:38:22.360
2014-06-10T07:41:18.630
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anime-production
Are anime streaming sites legal?


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.


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2014-05-30T10:06:30.183
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2014-06-10T10:15:56.377
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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.).


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2014-05-30T10:25:12.430
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I think where all forgetting one which is [Hulu](http://hulu.com/). Not only
is it free but it is legal too and provides a service called Hulu Plus (Which
provides an ad-free experience) and allows you to watch several animes (Plus
TV shows) without ads.

Just thought this would be interesting to bring up.

Also another interesting fact is that most of the videos that are hosted on
sites such as animeultima are actually hosted on other sites such as
auengine.com which is a file uploading service and then are just embedded into
the site. So it all becomes a bit of a gray area here whether the site is
legal or illegal.

This is just my opinion though.


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2014-05-30T10:47:46.010
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If you are worried about legal trouble for your own person, you need not
worry. Accessing streaming sites is not a crime. The crime lies with those
hosting said illegal site. Also there is probably some really fun legal deal
where the sites are being hosted in countries that don't have laws against it.

The morality of using such sites is another thing entirely. I actually buy
series I like, but only after I watch them. So I justify my use of such sites.
I also don't want to increase the numbers for a show I think is horrid.


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2014-06-09T22:01:29.023
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