Okay, since there are so many posts this is relevant to, I'll copy the massive message I just sent to someone who I won't name, and because it was originally directed towarRAB them, some of it may not be relevant to everyone, but I'd rather just put it in one post than have to write everything again, in multiple posts. So here it is:
As for fansubbers, I don't think they deserve this great amount of respect. No matter what reasons there are for it, no matter how hard they work, no matter how big of fans they are or how much they help other fans, the fact is that fansubs are one of the big reasons the anime industry is doing so bad, and as long as they continue, the industry will continue to do worse. If they are such big fans, they should realize that if they continue to illegally distribute this content, Japanese anime companies won't have the incentive or means to continue to produce the quality anime that they presumably love. But they obviously love making subtitles, since they continue to do so despite the risk of getting caught. So what should they do instead? GET A JOB DOING IT! Make official subs for Crunchyroll or the Japanese companies or whoever makes the subs for that, or make them for an American company. They get to do what they love without any risk of getting in trouble for it, they get to help the industry instead of hurting it, and they get PAID for doing what they love.
As for Crunchyroll, yes they were hurting the industry just as much as fansubbers. Yes they were stealing from the fansubbers themselves (not that I find that to be any worse than fansubbing itself). Yes they did start a business from being as much of thieves as fansubbers. Yes they did ultimately manage to succeed. But now they only help the industry, providing it with a new source of money, the most direct source of American fans' money, while fansubbers continue to only hurt it. It may seem right to say "they started bad, I won't accept them now", but the fact is I know that the anime industry is getting money from me every month, and they're not getting that money from you.
So no matter what sense of justice you believe in, the fact remains that fansubs hurt the industry and Crunchyroll now helps it, so if more people stick to the former and less try the latter, the gloomy state of the anime industry will continue to get worse, and the anime that is produced in the future will be of lesser quantity and quality. I don't want that, and I don't think any other anime fan does, which is why I give money to Crunchyroll, and try to convince others to do the same. Long live anime.