And so, I remember the 1337 bittorrent users...
Most people know that buying pirated DVD's or watching anime on illegal streams or illegally downloading anime will not help the anime industry earn money for their endeavors and that is what a recent study contradicted. Piracy actually HELPS the increase of DVD sales in Japan!
The said study conducted by Tanaka Tatsuo, an associate professor of Keio University monitored the DVD sale and rental figures for 105 episodes from various TV series, comparing them to downloads of the same episodes from popular Japanese sharing network Winny, as well as the view counts of those episodes on YouTube.
The study found that YouTube viewing did not negatively impact the sales and rentals of DVDs, and may have been increasing said sales/rentals. Winny downloads, however, DID have a negative impact on DVD RENTALS, but not DVD SALES.
Since this study only scoped in Japan, it is not sure if the same effect will occur outside of Japan and so, to those who are watching via unofficial stream, please the support the official release once it is available in your area!
Source: Japanator