tenchir said:
To be fair, you think it's cheap to host like 150 episodes(175 MB each) and expect the bandwidth to last a month? I'm surprised that Narutofan still has the old manga chapters to download..... AND that the links still works!
edit: This really isn't any different compared to services like streamload where they charge you per megabyte just to download at brazing speed.
edit 2: The pay thing is just an option for people who want to download and can't be bothered with sharing on bittorrent or for people who can't use bittorrent. It might be wrong if the guy wanted money, but who does it hurt? Is he charging a lot of money or something?
i don't think anyone expects that, but the thing is, while the argument could go either way, he's still charging for access to copyrighted material.
i'm surprised that the manga downloads work too, but the whole idea of a website offering anime downloads (or any other copyrighted content) nowadays is pretty pointless. What's in it for the founder -- e-fame? Buying hosts that offer higher bandwidth and begging for donations, while the inevitable shutdown/change of focus looms nearer as the site gets more popular... Where do i sign up? i'm glad that narutofan.com is up, but i won't cry when it gets shut down or if all the downloads move to the pay server.
And who does it hurt? It hurts the companies who produce the anime, the anime's artists, etc. TV rips are good enough for most people to decide not to get the DVD, and then when the DVD's released, it gets ripped and posted too. And i can see how some would justify it -- "Why should I pay for overpriced DVDs when i can download them for a fraction of the cost from Naruto Fan?"