Crunchyroll respond to Funimation customers who lost access to digital purchases

Crunchyroll have responded to consumer anger over their decision to remove paid-for purchases when it closed down the Funimation app. 

In a blog post on the Funimation website under "What is going to happen to my digital copies?" the following has been added:

We understand that you may have concerns about your digital copies from Funimation. These Digital copies available on Funimation were a digital access to the content available on the DVDs or Blu-rays purchased.

Please note that Crunchyroll does not currently support Funimation Digital copies, which means that access to previously available digital copies will not be supported. However, we are continuously working to enhance our content offerings and provide you with an exceptional anime streaming experience. We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to explore the extensive anime library available on Crunchyroll.

In an interview with The Verge, president of Crunchyroll Rahul Puruni further addressed concerns of consumer confidence in digital assets:

“[We] are working really hard directly with each [customer] to ensure that they have an appropriate value for what they got in the digital copy initially,” Purini tells Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel during this week’s Decoder podcast. “As people reach out to us through customer service, we are responding and handling each of those requests as they prefer.”

 “So it could be that they get access to a digital copy on any of the existing other services where they might be able to access it. It could be a discount access to our subscription service so they can get access to the same shows through our subscription service.”

This implies that only customers taking direct steps to contact the company are seeing any form of compensation offered, and therefore we would urge any customers affected by this issue to contact Funimationn/Crunchyroll directly to haggle for some recompense. 

It is important to remember that, no matter what the digital service, be it anime-related or larger streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, digital assets are not tangible items and can be removed without warning. Most, if not all, terms of service offered by these companies will state that you have no actual ownership of your purchase, and therefore you should treat such items as temporary rentals at absolute best.

Caveat emptor as they say.