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I am a writer, among other things. I have seen my books traded on usenet as PDFs. It's amazing the effort people will go through... scanning pages, doing OCR... Anyway, my point is that I am a content creator too, so I know how you feel, but even if I could I would not nuke a pirate's computer. That is going over the line.
As a software publisher, you have the right to alter your software but nothing else on the host system. Anything beyond that isn't vigilantism... it's vandalism.
A publisher that does vandalize a system in retribution for piracy at least should post clear warnings on their site and in the product itself, so that potential customers who have a problem with the tactic are adequately informed. You might even scare a pirate into going legit. If you nuke their system, they'll be so mad there is no chance of that--if they even understand what happened.
In a larger sense, as a business owner, I think it is a good idea to take the high ground regardless of how frustrated you are. It's the right thing to do. Any job that is high profile will get you some arrows in the back. It's the cost of doing business. You just need to find a reasonable way to minimize them.
Just my $0.02 as a former publishing guy, businessman and author. (And I am a registered user of Tweaks 2k2, though now every time I upgrade I will be holding my breath...)
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