An interesting parallel to this that might be worth looking at is the Japanese market. America used to get anime way later than it was released, and there was enormous amounts of piracy.
By the time the show would be released on DVD, many people had nice-quality subtitled videos from an independent online group. Many of these "fan-subbing" teams said they were releasing the files as a service to the worldwide fans that wouldn't otherwise be able to watch.
These days, companies are doing a bunch of simultaneous releases on TV in Japan and online in the US (and probably some other countries?). I think that time will tell how big of an effect the time delay had.
By the time the show would be released on DVD, many people had nice-quality subtitled videos from an independent online group. Many of these "fan-subbing" teams said they were releasing the files as a service to the worldwide fans that wouldn't otherwise be able to watch.
These days, companies are doing a bunch of simultaneous releases on TV in Japan and online in the US (and probably some other countries?). I think that time will tell how big of an effect the time delay had.