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The_Cheeseman832026-01-28 10:30
I always wonder how they come to these numbers. It’s a fact that a lot of people pirate stuff that they’d never actually pay for. Just because a lot of people watch stuff for free doesn’t mean they’d actually be customers. I’ve watched a ton of extremely mediocre anime that I’d never spend good money on.
SangIV2026-01-28 10:58
Maybe they base it on how much money pirate sites make specifically in Ad Revenue? 🫣 Well, here in SEA, its less rampt since we have legal distributors like Muse Asia, Ani One & Tropics Anime Asia.
BambooGentleman2026-01-28 11:12
> pirate stuff that they’d never actually pay for.
...and never would have gotten exposed to without piracy, either.
melcarba2026-01-28 11:50
The reason why its hard to take these numbers seriously is because you and I know that they're basing it on an extremely flawed assumption that "1 download/1 view = 1 sale".
i_dont_wanna_sign_up2026-01-28 10:31
If pirated anime and manga never reached overseas, it might still be a niche thing.
CJP12162026-01-28 10:31
You know where there isn't a piracy issue for Japanese content? SE Asia where you can actual purchase the f\*\*\*ing content and have localization.
They also act like weebs aren't still going to fork over money for collectibles or physical copies of stuff they're passionate about. Brother, I am weebs. I still want that stuff and will buy it. Why wouldn't you want more of my money by either *giving me access to the content to begin with* or letting me be exposed to it online?
kugisaki-kagayama2026-01-28 10:32
Maybe stop making it hard to access your content then
smart_is_cool10202026-01-28 10:40
Exactly , Crunchyroll and Netflix have barely 50% of the content available all together . I pay subscription to only find one season of a anime and the rest marked as “Not available in your region” . Only super popular shounen anime are available completely , even in those we don’t have access to so many movies that play a part in continuation of the story for example take Naruto most of it’s movies aren’t there in my region and not only these until recently my region didn’t have access to great movies like your name and till now no access to silent voice , I want to eat your pancreas and many more .
Bananaman90202026-01-28 10:32
Make a better alternative to Crunchyroll and then I will pretend to care.
shakegraphics2026-01-28 10:34
All the anime services are dogshit these days. And crunchy roll subtitles are getting worse every day. The pirate sites are just better.
melcarba2026-01-28 11:51
How are pirate sites better when they're just hosting rips from Crunchyroll (the one you claim having bad subtitles)?
ceribaen2026-01-28 14:00
I guess if looking at it from a value /get what you paid for perspective - if one sailed the high seas and paid nothing to access the content, they would have no expectation on the quality of said product.
shakegraphics2026-01-28 16:43
I don’t pay to get ripped off by ai subs lmao.
melcarba2026-01-28 18:02
At the end of the day, you're still watching the "AI subs" though.
shakegraphics2026-01-28 18:12
It’s.. my only option.. what’s your point?
Pirate sites still offer a better user interface experience and selection and faster load times. And seamless auto skipping intros and outros. They are just better.
marioquartz2026-01-28 18:41
CR DONT USE AI. Period. ZERO words in any form are from AI. And yes, is confirmed that they dont use AI. And no, any link you can provide is a confirmed lie.
shakegraphics2026-01-28 19:05
I’m not basing it on a link, I’m confirming it on the animes I’ve watched have dogshit insane subtitles that are just blatantly wrong multiple times, that would only use those words if it was an ai or they did the lowest amount of work lol. I do not think a human who can speak English as a first language is translating it.
marioquartz2026-01-28 23:41
Japanese audio => human made subtitles.
ANY other language => Closed captions made with a very old and very crappy tech call Speech To Text.
ZERO WORDS made with AI. If you dont want doghsit words use japanese audio. And you will get human made subtiles.
Positive_Conflict_262026-01-28 10:37
Lol, it doesn't.
The idiots who make these claims are under the assumption that every pirate would pay if piracy wasn't an option.
In reality, the VAST majority of us either don't have the money, refuse to pay as a form of protest, or literally don't have any legal access to the pirated content.
Those who can't pay were never potential customers to begin with.
Those who protest could be potential customers. I stopped buying Kindle books since Amazon removed the option to download my books to a computer, and I find subscriptions as nothing more than rebranded serfdom. Fix these issues, and I would pay.
Those with no access is the stupidest part.
Kadmos12026-01-28 12:16
CR used to be a piracy-related site, fpr those unaware.
qef152026-01-28 12:54
Digital piracy aside, this:
>In the latest survey, the ministry assessed damage linked to merchandise for the first time, estimating the amount at ¥4.7 trillion. Major problems were counterfeit dolls and trading cards.
Is however an actual problem. Counterfeit merch is bad for everyone involved that isn't the bootlegger. The IP holder sees no money and the consumer gets a worse product for the same money.
Worst part is that it is usually done unconciously by the consumer, because there's a shit ton of bootleg stuff from Amazon. 99% of stuff from Aliexpress is also bootleg, minus some official stores. Though worse are Shein and Temu, both of which have a guaranteed 100% bootleg rate.
And I don't assume it is fanmade stuff, which is miniscule in scope anyway.
However, this can be fought with just community efforts: Body pillows/dakimakura were notably bootleg hell until about 10-7 years ago and any western dakimakura website was considered a bootlegger, to the point that anime youtubers were unknowingly promoting bootleggers all over the place.
This changed with the arrival of western non-bootleg dakimakura, but that was only from 2016 or so onwards. Nowadays, we have a proper guide to avoid bootlegs, more than enough designs to choose from (which means no need to do bootlegging as a large amount of characters already have legit daki designs) and multiple proper western websites.
CJP12162026-01-28 13:21
This I can actually get behind, but cracking down on the broader Japanese media consumption market I don't feel like is the way to go about it. Just my opinion though.
If they put more legal restrictions (this would have to be on an international front though I reckon. I don't think just JP regulation alone would be enough to quell the bootleg market) on what can be actually sold as merch I feel like it'd be easier to have stuff removed from the marketplace, or at least steer people away. Even if they didn't directly go after the bootlegs, but somehow got people to cooperate on certain naming requirements that forced unofficial stuff to be legally categorized separately from official, with real penalties. It feels like they just keep going after the wrong side of the piracy equation though. Again, just my opinions. I am but an outsider lol.
qef152026-01-28 15:08
>This I can actually get behind, but cracking down on the broader Japanese media consumption market I don't feel like is the way to go about it.
That's why I said this is aside piracy, it's an entirely seperate issue as most of those factories are in China which don't give a flying fuck about bootlegging. And while "counterfeit" items are usually banned whether through import or with Chinese border customs, bootleg items pass through that filter usually.
It has way different methods of preventing. Everyone, including the companies, know that bootlegging requires a seperate approach than piracy.
>on what can be actually sold as merch I feel like it'd be easier to have stuff removed from the marketplace, or at least steer people away. Even if they didn't directly go after the bootlegs, but somehow got people to cooperate on certain naming requirements that forced unofficial stuff to be legally categorized separately from official, with real penalties.
The main problem here is China is not enforcing this.
But yes, the dakimakura community already has mostly set this up for example, with veterans properly vetting websites for bootlegs for example. And it's a tight-knit community: bootlegs are considered non-grata. Figurines unfortunately are slightly more wild west and much harder to spot. Dakimakura bootlegs can be spotted on their fabric, as no reputable printer goes through them.
dude_18182026-01-28 18:12
"Lost" profit is not damage
Peacemkr452026-01-28 21:46
The industry business model is overly Japan-centric with only slight shifts to a global market over the years. because of this, those not purchasing directly from Japan or viewing from inside country will only have a few sources. Well, that opens the market place up to piracy and knock off merch. With the advent of 3D printing, many of the figurines can be open source rendered, printed either with filament or resin, painted and sold for considerably less than what is available in the current legal marketplaces. The Story is a lie. they didn't lose 10.4 trillion, they didn't capitalize on 10.4 trillion in opportunities for a global market.
Mr_Rock-haley2026-01-29 04:23
Only very young children and people with veeeeeery little knowledge buy 3D printer stuff, tbh
Commentaires
...and never would have gotten exposed to without piracy, either.
They also act like weebs aren't still going to fork over money for collectibles or physical copies of stuff they're passionate about. Brother, I am weebs. I still want that stuff and will buy it. Why wouldn't you want more of my money by either *giving me access to the content to begin with* or letting me be exposed to it online?
Pirate sites still offer a better user interface experience and selection and faster load times. And seamless auto skipping intros and outros. They are just better.
ANY other language => Closed captions made with a very old and very crappy tech call Speech To Text.
ZERO WORDS made with AI. If you dont want doghsit words use japanese audio. And you will get human made subtiles.
The idiots who make these claims are under the assumption that every pirate would pay if piracy wasn't an option.
In reality, the VAST majority of us either don't have the money, refuse to pay as a form of protest, or literally don't have any legal access to the pirated content.
Those who can't pay were never potential customers to begin with.
Those who protest could be potential customers. I stopped buying Kindle books since Amazon removed the option to download my books to a computer, and I find subscriptions as nothing more than rebranded serfdom. Fix these issues, and I would pay.
Those with no access is the stupidest part.
>In the latest survey, the ministry assessed damage linked to merchandise for the first time, estimating the amount at ¥4.7 trillion. Major problems were counterfeit dolls and trading cards.
Is however an actual problem. Counterfeit merch is bad for everyone involved that isn't the bootlegger. The IP holder sees no money and the consumer gets a worse product for the same money.
Worst part is that it is usually done unconciously by the consumer, because there's a shit ton of bootleg stuff from Amazon. 99% of stuff from Aliexpress is also bootleg, minus some official stores. Though worse are Shein and Temu, both of which have a guaranteed 100% bootleg rate.
And I don't assume it is fanmade stuff, which is miniscule in scope anyway.
However, this can be fought with just community efforts: Body pillows/dakimakura were notably bootleg hell until about 10-7 years ago and any western dakimakura website was considered a bootlegger, to the point that anime youtubers were unknowingly promoting bootleggers all over the place.
This changed with the arrival of western non-bootleg dakimakura, but that was only from 2016 or so onwards. Nowadays, we have a proper guide to avoid bootlegs, more than enough designs to choose from (which means no need to do bootlegging as a large amount of characters already have legit daki designs) and multiple proper western websites.
If they put more legal restrictions (this would have to be on an international front though I reckon. I don't think just JP regulation alone would be enough to quell the bootleg market) on what can be actually sold as merch I feel like it'd be easier to have stuff removed from the marketplace, or at least steer people away. Even if they didn't directly go after the bootlegs, but somehow got people to cooperate on certain naming requirements that forced unofficial stuff to be legally categorized separately from official, with real penalties. It feels like they just keep going after the wrong side of the piracy equation though. Again, just my opinions. I am but an outsider lol.
That's why I said this is aside piracy, it's an entirely seperate issue as most of those factories are in China which don't give a flying fuck about bootlegging. And while "counterfeit" items are usually banned whether through import or with Chinese border customs, bootleg items pass through that filter usually.
It has way different methods of preventing. Everyone, including the companies, know that bootlegging requires a seperate approach than piracy.
>on what can be actually sold as merch I feel like it'd be easier to have stuff removed from the marketplace, or at least steer people away. Even if they didn't directly go after the bootlegs, but somehow got people to cooperate on certain naming requirements that forced unofficial stuff to be legally categorized separately from official, with real penalties.
The main problem here is China is not enforcing this.
But yes, the dakimakura community already has mostly set this up for example, with veterans properly vetting websites for bootlegs for example. And it's a tight-knit community: bootlegs are considered non-grata. Figurines unfortunately are slightly more wild west and much harder to spot. Dakimakura bootlegs can be spotted on their fabric, as no reputable printer goes through them.