<
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2024/02/funimation-dvds-included-forever-available-digital-copies-forever-ends-april-2/>
"How long is “forever”? When it comes to digital media, forever could be as
close as a couple of months away.
Funimation, a Sony-owned streaming service for anime, recently announced that
subscribers' digital libraries on the platform will be unavailable after April
2. For years, Funimation had been telling subscribers that they could keep
streaming these digital copies of purchased movies and shows, but qualifying
it: “forever, but there are some restrictions.”
Funimation’s parent company, Sony, bought rival anime streaming service
Crunchyroll in 2021. Since then, it was suspected that Sony would merge the
offerings together somehow. This week, we learned how, as Funimation announced
that its app and website would close on April 2, and Funimation accounts will
become Crunchyroll accounts. Most of Funimation’s catalog is already on
Crunchyroll, Funimation’s announcement claimed.
But in addition to offering video streaming, Funimation also dubbed and
released anime as physical media, and sometimes those DVDs or Blu-rays would
feature a digital code. Subscribers to the Funimation streaming service could
add those digital codes to Funimation and then stream the content from the
platform.
With Funimation claiming that customers could access these digital copies
“forever,” I could see why someone might have thought this was a reliable way
to access their purchased media. For people lacking the space, resources, or
interest in maintaining a library of physical media, this was a good way to
preserve treasured shows and movies without spending more money. It also
provided a simple way to access purchased media online if you were, for
example, away on a trip and had a hankering to watch some anime DVDs you
bought.
But soon, people who may have discarded or lost their physical media or lack a
way to play DVDs and Blu-rays won't have a way to access the digital copies
that they were entitled to through their physical copy purchase."
Via Kevin O'Brien, who wrote "The entertainment industry makes another move in
its campaign to encourage people to learn how to BitTorrent."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
