Frankly, I’m kind of sick of it. Is it because non-copyrighted pieces of work are not sustainable for large publishing houses? Not to mention manga is too. It’s not much of a problem when it comes to individuals, but companies which probably lobby for “eternal” copyright (I know Disney does but that’s not Japanese).
In fact, is there anything from Japan that I don’t have to feel guilty about sharing with my friends and family (but mostly friends)? Or do I literally have to wait until my death for some anime to enter the public domain?
If you have a disc copy of an anime, you are free to share the disc.
With a lot of foreign-from-your-country media it is hard to get an hold of that media without spending a lot via a 3rd-party.
If that media is available in your country, then you are free to share the official ways to consume that media.
Having an unofficial copy of a piece of media that isn’t even available in your country isn’t hurting the company behind it, as you are paying premium to a 3rd-party that already bought those copies of the media and now needs to pocket the extra percentage on it.
Copyright almost never applies to the consumer and is more meant to prevent other companies from reselling unofficial recreations or bundles, but of course that depends on laws of your state.
I think the issue is that people think they’re still consumers, because they’re not companies. Uploading an anime, heck uploading a clip from an anime to YouTube is already going above what being a consumer it. Not a company, certainly, but you’re already above consumer and people keep getting confused by it.