[creamyhorror]

> Fansubbers these days are a tiny shadow of that they used to be. The vast majority of anime piracy these days consists of ripping official streams, which include subtitles.

Yep, like another commenter says, the scene got Crunchyrolled 2010-2012ish and many subbers retired.

It's funny (frankly outright amazing) how Crunchyroll, originally a major pirate streaming site, managed to cross the chasm by striking legal agreements with content owners, and for a large amount of content to boot. It might have been possible only for a small window (before the real rise of global online media platforms), during which the owners wanted to gain the global online audience and didn't have as much familiarity with building online international distribution channels. Can't imagine moves like that happening any more in our climate.

[Shank]

The truly ironic thing is how the cycle is now complete. Crunchyroll is now owned by Sony. Sony also owns Aniplex, a major anime distributor, and A1 Pictures, its animation subsidiary that produces a lot of popular anime. The former pirate site is now owned by the company that produces the work!

[creamyhorror]

Just according to k--plan. A Japanese media conglomerate wanted vertical integration with a global distribution channel, so they went out and got it. They would probably have done it earlier; they just never had a suitable paid platform to acquire before (and possibly tried to build their own unsuccessfully).