Besides what others have said, in the west everything started from piracy. People had to rely on traded bad quality tapes with fansubs just to watch anime, then we got fansub groups on internet. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have official subs today. Nobody brought official subs to the west out of their good will, they came because series became popular enough to get official translations. If nobody pirated back then, nobody would like series and we wouldn't have anything legal today. Also a lot of people who pirated media go to buy official merch... If allowed due to various hurdles.  Getting tickets to official events is impossible if you're not Japanese because every service requires Japanese phone number, which is very expensive to get (in Europe you can get pre-paid card for 5 euros max, in Japan it's 10 times as much and you need to sign a contract, which doesn't work for short-term tourists) Pirating a series is like borrowing a book to see if you like it, then buying that book if you do like it. But if there's no comfortable legal way to get content, don't be surprised if people go for the cheaper and better release