Blame Johnny Depp. With his cocky, cheeky, crafty characterisation of Captain Jack Sparrow in the four wildly successful Pirates of the Caribbean movies, he made piracy cool. What child watching those films wouldn't want to be a pirate – skirting round the edges of the law, turning their nose up at authority and plundering the vaults of big business?
Look at how 38-year-old Kim Dotcom, when arrested over the $175 million Megaupload copyright infringement in New Zealand last month, ignored judicial concerns and swaggered for the cameras. With his invented name, pink Cadillac and reinforced safe...