Sony Subsidiary Crunchyroll Speed Runs Public Relations Armageddon With Hand-Delivered Copyright Infringement Takedowns at Anime Expo and Removal of Commentary Feature

by Gator

For a company that controls nearly all of the Japanese animation market in America after its acquisition by Sony and merger with Funimation, you would naturally think Crunchyroll would be trying its best to cater to enthusiasts and improve its notoriously and legendarily awful reputation within the anime fandom. Of course, this is a Sony company, and while the former console giant licks its wounds from its disastrously bad forays into Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and prays that it is “too big to fail,” its subsidiaries seem hellbent on trying to follow the PlayStation 5 into the trash can.

Crunchyroll has often been in the news over the past few years, and it has almost never been for a good reason. From its embarrassingly bad Hatsune Miku concert that featured not a virtual 3D concert but a dancing Miku avatar on a glorified big screen TV, to the disaster that was Crunchyroll Expo, to deleting users’ purchased Funimation content with no refund, to immediately raising prices following its near monopoly status, the anime streaming service desperately needed some sort of win. Of course, this is a Sony company and a Sony company only knows how to do one thing: shoot itself in the foot repeatedly through public relations nightmares.

This past weekend at Anime Expo, an artist and VTuber by the name KAYOZIA had her merchandise set up in the exhibition hall of the convention. Her booth featured all sorts of anime merchandise, from beautiful artwork to keychains and even plushies of her original characters. As a VTuber, KAYOZIA was streaming her virtual avatar to her booth and not personally at her table when a man walked up and handed one of her team members a piece of paper. On the sheet, in big, bold letters, was an alarming headline: “NOTICE OF INFRINGEMENT / CONVENTION VIOLATION.” Ironic that Crunchyroll itself began as an anime piracy site before going “legitimate.”

The word “Copyright infringement” sends chills down the spine of any artist or creator on the Internet. The idea that a five-second clip or a small doodle of a cute anime girl could result in your entire career being upended is enough to send anyone into sheer panic. That’s what happened to KAYOZIA, as she rushed to the social media site X to warn others.

“For artists who are selling fanart at Anime Expo please be aware representatives for Viz Media are going around giving out copyright strike violations.” KAYOZIA warns other artists on X.com that representatives from Viz Media (and Crunchyroll) are going around and threatening to take down booths that are allegedly infringing upon their copyrights. Source: @KAYOZIA, X.com

The text of the document indicated that the company saw merchandise featuring characters from several series, including the nearly two-decade-old Lucky Star, and decided to threaten the artist with expulsion from the convention.

“It has come to our attention that you are offering to sell merchandise in a manner that appears to infringe upon the copyrights and/or trademarks owned by Viz Media, LLC or Crunchyroll, LLC. ("Rights Holders"). This activity will be reported to Anime Expo staff, per their request. Failure to cease this activity may result in your expulsion from the Expo.

Regarding Unlicensed Merchandise: If the merchandise in question embodies a work to which the Rights Holders have rights and if this merchandise was produced or sold without the authorization of the Rights Holders, they may take action against you for copyright infringement pursuant to 17 USC § 505, et. seq.. whether or not you are aware that the merchandise is unauthorized.

Merchandise with Infringing Marks or Names: The Rights Holders may also take action against the distribution or display of merchandise bearing a trademark, without authorization, to which the Rights Holders have rights. (See 15 U.S.C. §§ 1124-1125).”

“I was in a hurry to warn other artists when I made this tweet so maybe copyright strike isn’t the perfect word to use here, but here is a cropped photo of the paper they handed my booth.” KAYOZIA posted a picture of the document her booth received demanding that she take down allegedly infringing artwork and merchandise by Crunchyroll and Viz Media. Source: @KAYOZIA, X.com

This is nothing new for the former anime piracy website. Google searches bring up Reddit threads from last year about similar notices being sent to other booths in the exhibition halls. In a warning to other artists at the convention, KAYOZIA posted the full notice itself on X.

“I was in a hurry to warn other artists when I made this tweet so maybe copyright strike isn’t the perfect word to use here, but here is a cropped photo of the paper they handed my booth.” Included are the series Darling in the Franxx, Evangelion (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Fairy Tail, as well as Lucky Star and Dragon Maid (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid), both of which were written in as fill-in-the-blank additions.

Some users on X remained skeptical of the validity of the document, with numerous errors leading people to assume it was a troll. The document featured mistakes like Haikyu!! spelled without the extra exclamation point, and instances of not using the proper full titles of the series such as listing the series as “Frieren” instead of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.

One user even suggested that she “ignore them” and that “nothing will come of the notice.” The skepticism was put to an end by the actual lawyer showing up in the replies to confirm his involvement. “lol. You sure about that?” replied Evan Stone from his @stonevaughanlaw X account, with a picture of a booth being shut down by Anime Expo convention staff.

“Yeah, that was me and my team. I’ve been doing this since 2008 for FUNi, crunchyroll Viz and others.” Evan Stone of Stone & Vaughan Law Firm confirms that his firm provided the copyright infringement notices for Crunchyroll and Viz Media at Anime Expo 2024. Anime Expo staff shut down booths that did not abide by the notice and removed the listed artwork and merchandise. Source: @stonevaughanlaw, X.com

Then Stone and another X user got into an argument over the notices, with Stone flippantly dismissing the fact that KAYOZIA was a VTuber and saying “she wasn’t even there” as her copyright infringement notice was delivered. “Are you saying I wasn’t at my booth?” shot back KAYOZIA.

Stone replied with a shrugging emoji. “Well, when we asked we were told that the artist was live-streaming from Vegas in that moment.”

When asked by KAYOZIA whether his law firm was serving notices to artists and whether the documents were legitimate, Stone confirmed it was him and that they were very real. “Yeah, that was me and my team. I’ve been doing this since 2008 for FUNi, Crunchyroll Viz, and others.”

While Crunchyroll and other publishers have the full right to decide whether or not to allow fan-created work to be sold and lock the ability to do so behind potentially expensive license agreements, Japanese animation is a fan-oriented industry. Generating bad will with the fans often results in huge backlash, which could previously be seen in the comments section of the Crunchyroll website.

This is no longer the case, as after the perpetually bad take machine known as Mother’s Basement highlighted what he considered “review bombing,” Crunchyroll made the decision to remove user comments entirely from the website.

The publisher posted a statement to their platform, writing, “At Crunchyroll, we prioritize creating a safe and respectful community environment. To maintain this standard, we remove all existing user-generated content, including comments, across all our platforms and experiences.”  While Crunchyroll maintains that they will continue with user ratings, as they opt to release deliberately mistranslated, poorly localized, culture war-infused slop onto their website, it is inevitable that those will go the way of user commentary.

The company is playing a dangerous game by constantly infuriating the anime fandom. Some Japanese publishers like Shueisha have taken the initiative to upload their licensed manga onto their managed platforms. If Crunchyroll continues antagonizing the people giving them money, it won’t be long before we see large publishers like Kadokawa or Shueisha dip their toes into content delivery and start their own Western streaming websites. That would mark the end of Crunchyroll, and it would be well-deserved and very welcome.

Do you think Crunchyroll will learn from its past mistakes and correct course, or do you think Sony will have another future financial disaster on their hands? Let us know what you think in the comments and restack this article so more people see it!