Is HiAnime Safe & Legal? Everything You Need to Know

In this post, I’ll examine whether HiAnime is safe and legal. I’ll also show you how to safely stream content on the site and provide 100% safe and legal alternatives.

What is HiAnime?

HiAnime is a streaming site for free anime movies, TV shows, and short films.

The platform provides a lot of free anime content, including English Subbed, Dubbed, currently airing, and popular titles. All these are free; you don’t need an account or subscription to stream content.

HiAnime is an extremely popular streaming site with millions of site visitors every month.

The content is top-notch, thanks to an up-to-date library, sleek user interface, and HD streaming quality. However, these standards are too good to be true for a third-party site that charges nothing.

Fans worldwide aren’t oblivious that HiAnime offers free premium anime streaming.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) also targeted several HiAnime domain names in a recent DMCA subpoena. In this light, some users ask, “Is HiAnime safe and legal?”

In this post, you will discover everything you need about HiAnime’s safety and legal standing.

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Is HiAnime Safe and Legal?

Like most unverified streaming sites, HiAnime claims that it does not host any content on its site. Instead, it provides links to media hosted on other sites.

The official website says:

HiAnime does not store any files on our server, we only link to the media which is hosted on 3rd party services.

Despite this disclaimer, HiAnime shares copyrighted content. FireStickTricks.com can’t verify whether HiAnime has acquired the rights to redistribute this content. However, it’s highly unlikely.

Let’s explore the safety and legal concerns separately.

HiAnime Safety Concerns

The following factors raise safety concerns for HiAnime:

Multiple Domains

The official domain for HiAnime is hianime.to. However, the brand also exists in other domains, including hianime.sx, hianime.mn, and hianime.nz. Multiple domains are a huge red flag for several reasons.

You cannot differentiate original sites with copycats. Malicious players can also use the brand name to create fake websites whose sole purpose is to phish user data or spread malware.

Data safety

HiAnime’s content is free and available to everyone. This platform doesn’t even ask you to sign up for an account. However, hackers often target free streaming sites due to poor security measures. The safety of your data on such sites is not guaranteed.

Free sites make money through ad revenue or selling user data to third parties. HiAnime doesn’t show ads, which suggests it makes money through the latter.

Sketchy Terms of Service (ToS)

HiAnime’s Terms of Service (ToS) are sketchy. Regarding the limitations, the site states that it won’t be held accountable for any damages arising from the use or inability to use the materials on HiAnime. Furthermore, the site reveals that it hasn’t reviewed all the sites linked to its website and is not responsible for the contents of any such linked sites.

The best I can do to determine HiAnime’s safety is to scan the website for malicious or suspicious files. I scanned the site URL on VirusTotal, a top online antivirus. No security vendor found any malicious files. However, one vendor found it suspicious. Please see the results below.

HiAnime Legal Concerns

Several aspects raise legal concerns for HiAnime. They include:

Offering Premium Content for Free

When a streaming site offers premium content for free, it doesn’t make business sense. How are the rightsholders making money off of it? For instance, if an anime series airs on TV or Netflix, the rightsholders make money by negotiating a deal with the distributor. The distributor then makes money by selling subscriptions or by cable charges.

If you watch a show for free on a site like HiAnime, which others are paying to watch, it is highly unlikely that it is legal. The content could be pirated and infringe copyright laws, which could lead to legal trouble.

Legal Troubles

Before a streaming site can be flagged for piracy, copyright holders must file a complaint with anti-piracy bodies highlighting the content illegally distributed or reproduced. According to an ACE DCMA subpoena filed against HiAnime, the anime streaming site infringes copyright laws.

In the subpoena, ACE requested Cloudflare disclose information on individuals offering infringing material. HiAnime was among the listed sites targeted in the subpoena.

How to Safely Watch HiAnime

FireStickTricks doesn’t encourage streaming infringing material. However, if you want to stream content via HiAnime, you should watch only public-domain content.

🔒 Always use a reliable VPN like ExpressVPN to avoid security and safety risks associated with unverified sites.

Here’s how a good VPN helps:

A VPN masks your IP address and hides your online activity. Your anonymity keeps you safe from authorities, ISPs, and malicious hackers
It encrypts your data, keeping it undecipherable
Ad-blockers help block intrusive ads
If HiAnime is restricted in your location, a VPN will unlock these restrictions

Step 1: Subscribe to ExpressVPN HERE. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Meaning, you can use it free for the first 30-days and if you are not satisfied with the performance (which is highly unlikely), you can ask for a full refund.

Step 2: Power ON your Fire TV Stick and go to Find followed by Search option.

Step 3: Now type “Expressvpn” (without quotes) in the search bar and select ExpressVPN when it shows up in the search results.

Step 4: Click Download to install the ExpressVPN app on Fire TV / Stick.

Step 5: Open the app and enter the login credentials that you created while buying the ExpressVPN subscription. Click Sign in.

Step 6: Click the Power icon to connect to a VPN server. That’s all. Your connection is now secure with the fastest and best VPN for FireStick.

You can also read more detailed info on using ExpressVPN with Fire TV / Stick.

Safe and Legal HiAnime Alternatives

Are you looking for anime streaming sites that are 100% safe and legal? They include the following:

1. Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll is probably the best anime streaming site on the market. The site is purely about anime, featuring trailers and extra clips, original movies, popular anime films, and complete episodes of ongoing TV series.

2. Hulu

Another legal service that offers anime is Hulu. The best part is that you don’t need to pay extra to access the anime library. With a single subscription, you can access the complete Hulu library, which includes movies, TV shows, and anime.

3. Netflix

Netflix is best known for original anime you can’t find anywhere else. If you are looking for a service that offers high-quality, complete, and up-to-date anime, look no further than Netflix. You also enjoy other content from the vast library, such as movies, documentaries, and TV shows.

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4. Tubi

All the above legal options are premium. If you’re not ready to pay to watch anime, Tubi has a decent library of free anime movies and shows. For free, you can watch popular series like Naruto, Dante’s Inferno, and JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure on Tubi.

Verdict: Is HiAnime Safe and Legal?

HiAnime’s safety and legal standing are not clear. Security tools like VirusTotal didn’t find suspicious files on the site. However, the site raises safety concerns, especially regarding data security. Being targeted by anti-piracy authorities also tells much about the platform’s legitimacy.

Related:

Legal Disclaimer - FireStickTricks.com does not verify the legality or security of any add-ons, apps or services mentioned on this site. Also, we do not promote, host or link to copyright-protected streams. We highly discourage piracy and strictly advise our readers to avoid it at all costs. Any mention of free streaming on our site is purely meant for copyright-free content that is available in the Public domain. Read our full disclaimer.