CrunchyRoll, that Youtube-like video streaming Web site that loves the anime has hit the big time. They have received a capital investment of 4.05 million dollars, probably for having over 4 million unique visitors per month. Essentially, the fansubbers had just been paid for their illicit actions, and this makes THE INDUSTRY very angry and Hulk-like.

ANN had posted a response to this by both FUNimation and Bandai Entertaiment. FUNimation says:

Funimation has been carefully monitoring the activities of crunchyroll.com for some time.  Since 2006 Funimation has provided several letters notifying the site's operators of copyright infringement issues in connection with content that has been made available through this site.  To date, crunchyroll.com has complied with FUNimation's demands to remove the applicable content.

The battle against unauthorized distribution of anime is a battle that Funimation cannot fight on its own.  Without proactive and effective copyright policing and enforcement by those that control anime content, sites like this will continue to gain a reputation as outlets for free anime.  If this happens, the entire anime industry will suffer, making the expensive and time consuming work of producing anime content for the U.S. market impossible.  As we've stated before, we will continue to act in the best interests of our Japanese licensors — and that includes ensuring that our industry as a whole has a commercial future in the U.S.