So this confuses me. They were a pirate site, and everyone knew they were pirate site, and then an investment company drops millions of dollars into them so they can go legit.
Doesn't that just expose the investment to lawsuits from all the companies whose content they were pirating? I mean, a studio may send a cease and desist letter but never pursue serious court action because there's no assets to take from a website that's run by a couple of college students. But once they get an influx if cash, now there's something worth suing over. Even if they stopped posting pirated content, shouldn't their previous acts still be subject to litigation?
Clearly that didn't happen, but I'm just wondering why.
There's probably some whack-ass reason involving a combination of Japanese IP laws, said Japanese companies not giving a fuck, with the added potential of 'It's free advertising' for said companies.
Japanese companies can do this thing that western companies seem to have forgotten how to do, think about the future. Why sue and get a one time payment, or maybe a small yearly payment, when you can take the deal, and make money from streaming for years and years to come and actually expand the audience paying for your content in an entirely new part of the world?
Daily reminder that Crunchyroll got their business started by making money off of other people's fansubs of anime.
They're a piece of shit company. Don't give them money.
So this confuses me. They were a pirate site, and everyone knew they were pirate site, and then an investment company drops millions of dollars into them so they can go legit.
Doesn't that just expose the investment to lawsuits from all the companies whose content they were pirating? I mean, a studio may send a cease and desist letter but never pursue serious court action because there's no assets to take from a website that's run by a couple of college students. But once they get an influx if cash, now there's something worth suing over. Even if they stopped posting pirated content, shouldn't their previous acts still be subject to litigation?
Clearly that didn't happen, but I'm just wondering why.
There's probably some whack-ass reason involving a combination of Japanese IP laws, said Japanese companies not giving a fuck, with the added potential of 'It's free advertising' for said companies.
But I could be completely off.
Japanese companies can do this thing that western companies seem to have forgotten how to do, think about the future. Why sue and get a one time payment, or maybe a small yearly payment, when you can take the deal, and make money from streaming for years and years to come and actually expand the audience paying for your content in an entirely new part of the world?