American anime industry

The chair of AX says the attendees of Anime Expo is averaging about 20 percent annual growth,
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/07/07/apop.DTL

but Ask John mentioned "The contemporary American anime industry is in dire straights. Evidence suggests that many of America's anime distributors are struggling financially."
http://www.animenation.net/news/askjohn.php?id=1123

What's this all about?

More people watching anime (as possibly evidenced by the increasing attendance of anime cons) doesn't mean more people are buying anime. Ever hear of a little thing called Bittorrent? The fansubbers' code of practice, that of "destroy all copies and cease distribution when licensed", has long fallen by the wayside.