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It's always ethical to pirate from big corporations and situations like this just prove this point.
It's always ethical to pirate when an intellectual property is owned by someone other than the creator.
This is something I don't see enough people bring up. It's one thing to download the newest album from [independent band] for free when they're selling a DRM-free version of it on their website for $5. It's another thing to download an obscure 20+ year old anime that's had its distribution rights passed to seven different companies since its release. Someone from Madhouse can correct me if I'm wrong, but I cannot believe that using my friend's Crunchyroll account to watch the Japanese dub of Boogiepop Phantom instead of illegally streaming the English dub from a sketchy website would earn any of the original creators any money at all. Even if I paid for my own CR subscription, it would only provide Crunchyroll with money. No matter how I consume this anime, the folks who made the show aren't getting compensated. So why should I pay for an inferior service?
A counter-argument would be that creators will receive less for distribution rights in the future because of streaming/downloading piracy without proper rights.