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Sat 03 Mar 2007Modern MomentJohn Butleron the perils of piracy: neither a buyer nor a vendor be.Most people perceive piracy to be an impish misdemeanour at most, a victimless crime. A friend comes back from Thailand with 50 unreleased movies in plastic wrappers and you chuckle at the badness of it all. You're unlikely to feel pangs of guilt for anyone involved in the making of I:Robot when you watch your pirated copy. Homicidal rage, yes, but guilt? No, because if there are victims, they appear to the public in unsympathetic form. They are Ben Affleck, David Geffen or Lars Ulrich of Metallica. They are multinational and mega-rich, and you can remain blithe about the consequences of piracy as long as the victims have no face - or a rich, well-manicured one. When a more vulnerable face appears, the real trouble begins.