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. 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.