The whole region-locked content thing kills me. In (my opinion) today's world, damn near everything is a global market, whether you want it to be or not. I can shop on amazon in different countries, and while it may cost me a few extra bucks in shipping, I can get whatever I want to buy. Streaming should be no different. As long as I'm paying the monthly fee, what should it matter where I live? I've been a member of Crunchyroll (anime streaming) for years, but it's only available in the US, so I have to use a VPN to watch anything (until they figure out the VPN and block it). Should I really have to do that?
There are a looooooooot of people who download copyrighted content who would happily spend their money. The problem is that the content owners have decided they don't want to supply a particular market. I want to enjoy a product. If it's available for me to purchase, I'll buy it. If it's not, I'll get it elsewhere. It's in the company's interest to make it more available.
Anyway, as for downloading, I've only downloaded one thing since coming to Japan, I don't want to risk it. The one time I did download, I connected to my brother's house back in the states using a VPN first, that way if they tried to track it, they'd think im in the US. I also have a paid VPN- Battleping- which I use for some games I play with friends back home (600ms ping without it, 150ms with it- huuuuuge difference), and it comes with a browser vpn, so I can at least get a lot of the streaming sites