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Comment by Eric_WVGG | Hacker News Reader

… so I'm just a dumb country software developer, but my understanding of corporate acquisitions is that the buying party was picking up both their assets and their liabilities.

Why is Sony not obligated to honor the contracts that now-their company signed to? Customers weren't making a deal with Yoshi Funimation, after all, they made a deal with FunimationCorp™, now a subsidiary of Sony™.

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Actually it's worse than that...

Funimation AQUIRED crunchyroll. Then changed their name. So technically it's still funimation under sony.

Because our consumer protection agencies have neither the funding nor the mettle to do anything, and voters have let ourselves sleepwalk into this state of affairs.

The terms are usually written such that one party can unilaterally end the agreement, in this case, the provider.

Also, companies are allowed to get away with attaching that fine print to large text labeled "Buy" because our legal system has completely given up on words actually meaning things.

Also in cases where the company's being dissolved in bankruptcy, affected consumers will be near the end of the line and likely not get anything.

So, divide your company in to two pieces, pull all digital assets in company A and license them to company B. Have company B sell (license) to the consumer. After product reaches market saturation have company A kill company B. Have company A license to company C and start the cycle all over?

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