[daten]

What if the pirates have mirrors? What if they have laser safety glasses with the correct range of filters?

What if the laser that's tuned for a long distance reflects off of something closer and permanently blinds the crew?

This sounds like an expensive and dangerous solution that can be easily circumvented.

[Symmetry]

The effective intensity of a laser falls of as the range squared, so you need a pretty hefty laser to dazzle someone at range. The intensity of reflected laser light falls of with the fourth power of the range, making reflected light not much of a concern for the crew. Its quite possible for the pirates to put a mirror between them and the ship, indeed it should be quite possible for the pirates to just turn their heads away from the defending ship.

The problem for the pirates is that its hard to effectively attack something you can't look at, however. Red glasses might be an effective countermeasure, though, as other people have pointed out.

[teaspoon]

If the mirror is wider than the cone of the laser (1 meter in this case), then irradiance still falls off as the range squared. Reflecting the laser back at its source only doubles the range.

[nedwin]

The pirates get around in basic dinghy's with fairly basic weapons. They're not that sophisticated in their attacks or their defenses (at least not yet).