Bootleggers, pirates, the dirty scoundrels who profit from the hard work of others. If not for these, shall we say, less than scrupulous individuals, Nosferatu (1922) would have been lost.

Legally, every last copy of Nosferatu was to be destroyed. But thanks to bootleggers, it survived, and exists today in the public domain.

Stoker’s widow successfully sued Prana-Film GmbH in a British court. The production company opted to declare bankruptcy rather than pay Mrs. Stoker damages, and it also agreed to the destruction of the negative and all of the “Nosferatu” prints.
However, some prints were already in circulation throughout Europe, and the British court was unable to track them down and destroy them (the surviving prints wound up in France, out of the jurisdiction of the British legal system). The film eventually showed up in the U.S. in 1929, but its distribution was severely limited because silent movies were being ignored in favor of sound films. The American distributor, Film Arts Guild, went out of business shortly after the film was released, and “Nosferatu” was eventually doomed to public domain status.

Pirates may be looked down on as thieves, but they're also natural hoarders, archivists who keep film, TV and games alive long after they disappear from circulation, or God forbid fall into the same legal limbo that would have seen every last copy of Nosferatu hunted down and destroyed.

And just think: if not for bootleggers, we wouldn't be able to watch the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Incidentally, the article I linked to is no longer available online. In fact, you wouldn't be able to read it, if not for the fine folks at The Internet Archive who were thoughtful enough to make a backup copy. ;)