Is it a sin to watch anime online without paying for it?

[Diogo7]

Is it?

[shooraijin]

Why are you asking?

[Diogo7]

Why are you asking?

Dont really have money to pay to watch at the moment

[Peanut]

...Crunchyroll is free with ads.

[IPv4]

...Crunchyroll is free with ads.

I'd recommend using an adblocker extension.

[Ante Bellum]

Oooooor you could let a few ads run to support a site that's allowing you to watch free, legal anime. Is that so hard?

[Furen]

I dunno... It's kind of a grey area.
You should probably try to support the creators to the best of your ability.

[Furen]

Oooooor you could let a few ads run to support a site that's allowing you to watch free, legal anime. Is that so hard?

It is when they break your internet (I was at another person's house, and they required it based on the state of their internet)

Or when the adverts are pornographic. Which is why I advocated supporting the artist directly.

[IPv4]

Oooooor you could let a few ads run to support a site that's allowing you to watch free, legal anime. Is that so hard?

I don't watch crunchy either way, but their free version videos are not even in HD. So it's clearly not a charity they are running. It is possible for ads to contain virus (even if you don't click on them) and it's perfectly legal to regulate what happens to your very own computer (so clearly not a sin).

[Xeno]

I don't watch crunchy either way, but their free version videos are not even in HD. So it's clearly not a charity they are running. It is possible for ads to contain virus (even if you don't click on them) and it's perfectly legal to regulate what happens to your very own computer (so clearly not a sin).

I literally logged back in just to reply to this because of how incredibly dumb this is.

1. You're right, it isn't a charity, that's why there are ads on the video feeds.
2. If you think standard definition video should be free, then I really wonder why Discotek hasn't sent me my free copy of Fist of the North Star yet.
3. Ads can contain viruses, you're correct. However, this is a legitimate site, which isn't running shady ads with viruses embedded in them.
4. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
5. Ellation Media, the company that owns Crunchyroll, is a division of Otter Media; Otter Media is owned by WarnerMedia Entertainment, which is a division of AT&T. They aren't running shady ads.
6. Unless CR's ad system is using the data you generate when visiting other sites and doing searches, it isn't showing you anything pornographic. And if they ARE using that ad system, then it's your own fault you're getting "pornographic" advertisements.

OP, it isn't a sin to watch stuff for free, but you should strive to use whatever avenues you have available to you to support the content creators. Sometimes that means buying physical copies, sometimes it's paying for a streaming service owned by the distributor in your market, other times it's watching ads. There are times when something isn't localized and there are no other options than to use fansubs or the like to watch a show, and there is typically not a way to support the original creators when this is the case, so it's fine.

[Ante Bellum]

My junk rural internet can generally handle it but sure. We don't know what OP's internet situation is but I'm sure it can handle some ads.
Still, at least you advocate grabbing things legally when possible. I get that gray area because let's face it, I've got my hands far into unlicensed stuff (though I've been buying recent releases as a bit of retroactive support) but that's best left out of general threads. Just statistically, though, I'm sure OP is looking for some popular thing that's currently streaming legally.
I'm not going to agree that buying copies necessarily supports the artist directly (because of things like secondhand stores, company bureaucracy, etc.) but that's an entirely different beast.

As for IPv4, first off, you'd best not go down the route of legal = not a sin. Full stop. Second, if OP is so concerned about whether or not watching (again, presumably currently available) anime for free is wrong, I imagine they'd want to actually support the site anyway. That or OP can use adblock, we all do (with whitelisting, of course), but then they need to get over asking if it's wrong and just own it.

Since Xeno ninja'd me while I was out taking care of the chicks I'm going to second his points. I've never seen an ad lewder than a run of the mill teen anime so ???

[Furen]

I'm not going to agree that buying copies necessarily supports the artist directly (because of things like secondhand stores, company bureaucracy, etc.) but that's an entirely different beast.

That was under the assumption that you could donate/support the creators directly, or as directly as possible.

My junk rural internet can generally handle it but sure

For the most part, I would agree. The place I was at could not, but that was a very bad internet connection in a very poor serviced area. But, apart from YouTube, I couldn't really play anything anyway. Maybe Netflix. I didn't try, but the family seemed to get it to work overall. But they did a lot of tweaks, hacks, add-ons, and tricks to get stuff to run, like ad blockers and such.

But yeah, try legal as best as you can.

[Peanut]

So what we're really all saying Diogo7 is whether you use adblock or not, there are plenty of legal options to watch anime for free so there's no need to have a moral quandry over this. Though if this was 10 years earlier man, the war that would have broken out on this site over THIS topic would have been the stuff of legend.

[Diogo7]

Thanks guys

[IPv4]

I really don't get what the deal is. It's apparently extremely important to please other people while ignoring your basic rights as an internet user. There is a bit of insanity in this reasoning. If you were to be like that all the time then it would lead to unhappiness and depression.

I also think it is of bad taste to call someones post "dumb". This is a very common sign that a person has no real counter-arguments.

[Furen]

Though if this was 10 years earlier man, the war that would have broken out on this site over THIS topic would have been the stuff of legend.

Oh boy would it ever. Even five years ago would have been ambiguous.

[Peanut]

I really don't get what the deal is. It's apparently extremely important to please other people while ignoring your basic rights as an internet user. There is a bit of insanity in this reasoning. If you were to be like that all the time then it would lead to unhappiness and depression.

Eh, I think it depends. I personally use adblock but there are sites (youtube and twitch mainly) where I've set it to turn off. Its a couple seconds of inconvenience that gives the content producer a few cents at no cost to myslef. I think we also need to keep in mind that with sites like crunchyroll, selling ad space is a big part of how they make their money which allows you to watch things for free on their platform. And its not as simple anymore as saying "We have 4 million people visiting are site" because these companies are aware of adblock as well. They want to make sure that the ad space they are buying is going to be seen by as many people as possible so they are going to demand analytics that show how many people have adblock switched on on said websites. This is why sites like Hulu pretty aggressively push you to turn off adblock when you are watching videos and also why a lot of streaming sites have a subscription tier that is more expensive but provides an ad free viewing experience. Its also why Google is going to start limiting what ads adblock can actually block on Chrome as well. I wouldn't go as far as you did because the way your terming things could be seen as classic entitlement since you are kind of arguing that you should have the right to be entertained for free. I know that's not what you mean but its still something to consider when your considering what to do about ads online.

[Furen]

Its also why Google is going to start limiting what ads adblock can actually block on Chrome as well.

Oh yeah? how are they able to do that? That's really interesting. I feel that there'll be some new tech sometime fairly quickly after they start implementing that.

[Peanut]

Its also why Google is going to start limiting what ads adblock can actually block on Chrome as well.

Oh yeah? how are they able to do that? That's really interesting. I feel that there'll be some new tech sometime fairly quickly after they start implementing that.

Here's a link to an article on it. This is somewhat old news so its possible that Google has changed their direction on this but I haven't heard anything to the contrary. This also isn't really surprising since a big part of Google's business is serving ads online so its in their best interests for their browser to not interfere with that.

[Furen]

Its also why Google is going to start limiting what ads adblock can actually block on Chrome as well.

Oh yeah? how are they able to do that? That's really interesting. I feel that there'll be some new tech sometime fairly quickly after they start implementing that.

Here's a link to an article on it. This is somewhat old news so its possible that Google has changed their direction on this but I haven't heard anything to the contrary. This also isn't really surprising since a big part of Google's business is serving ads online so its in their best interests for their browser to not interfere with that.

Looks like the article said that Google wasn't necessarily convinced that doing it would be good for them anyway.