piracy

piracy,

robbery committed or attempted on the high seas. It is distinguished from privateeringprivateering,
former usage of war permitting privately owned and operated war vessels (privateers) under commission of a belligerent government to capture enemy shipping.
..... Click the link for more information. in that the pirate holds no commission from and receives the protection of no nation but usually attacks vessels of all nations.

As the line between privateering and piracy is often hard to draw, any act of doubtful legality committed on the seas is apt to be characterized as piracy. Thus the sinking of merchant vessels by the Germans in World War I was characterized by some as piracy, although the act was done on the authority of a national state. However, at the Washington Conference of 1921 a treaty was concluded that declared that improper visit and search (see search, right ofsearch, right of.
1 In domestic law, the right of officials to search persons or private property, usually obtained through some form of search warrant authorized by a court. In the United States, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S.
..... Click the link for more information. ) by one in the service of any power would constitute piracy.

Since piracy is a crime against humanity, those practicing it may be tried in any competent court, regardless of nationality. To the forms of piracy defined by international law, however, a nation may add offenses committed on board its own vessels or in its own territorial waters.

History

Because it is often the result of failure or laxity in patrolling sea routes, piracy flourished in times of unrest, or when navies ordinarily protecting commerce were engaged in war. Pirates found their most suitable base of operations in an archipelago that offered shelter together with proximity to trade routes. Pirates preyed upon Phoenician and Greek commerce and were so active in the 1st cent. B.C. that Rome itself was almost starved by their interception of the grain convoys.

PompeyPompey
(Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus) , 106 B.C.–48 B.C., Roman general, the rival of Julius Caesar. Sometimes called Pompey the Great, he was the son of Cnaeus Pompeius Strabo (consul in 89 B.C.), a commander of equivocal reputation.
..... Click the link for more information. swept piracy from the Mediterranean, but with the decline of the Roman empire it revived there and was prevalent until modern times. Muslim pirates infested the W Mediterranean; the Venetians, who ostensibly policed the E Mediterranean, preyed upon the maritime trade of rival cities; and the Barbary StatesBarbary States,
term used for the North African states of Tripolitania, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. From the 16th cent. Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algeria were autonomous provinces of the Turkish Empire. Morocco pursued its own independent development.
..... Click the link for more information. got much of their revenue from piracy. In the North, the VikingsVikings,
Scandinavian warriors who raided the coasts of Europe and the British Isles from the 9th cent. to the 11th cent. In their language, the word "viking" originally meant a journey, as for trading or raiding; it was not until the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. harassed the commerce of the Baltic Sea and the English Channel. Emerging in the 13th cent., the Hanseatic LeagueHanseatic League
, mercantile league of medieval German towns. It was amorphous in character; its origin cannot be dated exactly. Originally a Hansa was a company of merchants trading with foreign lands.
..... Click the link for more information. succeeded in curbing the piracy of its era.

New trade routes opened during the Renaissance, e.g., the shipment of precious metals from the Spanish colonies, the rich trade with the East, and the development of the slave trade, that made piracy especially lucrative. At this period no great stigma was attached to piracy because maritime law had not been systematized. This fact, together with the increasing colonial rivalry of the powers, led states to countenance those pirates who promoted the national cause by attacking the commerce of rival nations. With the tacit approval of the provincial authorities, the West Indies became a pirates' rendezvous, and the English buccaneers of the Spanish MainSpanish Main,
mainland of Spanish America, particularly the coast of South America from the isthmus of Panama to the mouth of the Orinoco River. Spanish treasure fleets, sailing home from the New World, passed through the Caribbean N of the Main and were attacked by English
..... Click the link for more information. in the 17th and 18th cent., who despoiled the Spanish treasure armadas and pillaged Spanish-American coast settlements, returned to England to divide their spoils with the crown and to receive the royal pardon.

The development of national navies caused the decline of piracy. Beginning in 1803, the United States endeavored to crush the corsairs of Tripoli. In 1815 and 1816 the United States, the Netherlands, and Great Britain wiped out the Barbary pirates, who had exacted tribute under the threat of capturing ships and imprisoning their crews. In 1816, Great Britain and the United States began operations against pirates in the West Indies, particularly those on the Cuban coast, and in 1824 the United States sent David PorterPorter, David,
1780–1843, American naval officer, b. Boston. Appointed a midshipman in 1798, he served in the West Indies and in the war with Tripoli. In 1803 his ship, the Philadelphia,
..... Click the link for more information. to complete the task. The power of the pirates along the Straits of Malacca and the China seas was broken after the Opium WarsOpium Wars,
1839–42 and 1856–60, two wars between China and Western countries that marked the shift of wealth and power from East to West. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. in the late 19th cent. During the Spanish Civil War the major powers agreed (1937) at the Nyon Conference on an antipiracy pact after mysterious attacks on merchant ships in the Mediterranean. Small-scale piracy has persisted in some waters, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea off W Africa, off Indonesia and SE and S Asia, in South American and Caribbean waters, and in the Red Sea and off Somalia. In the early 21st cent. the lawlessness in Somalia led to the rise there, initially mainly in the Gulf of Aden but subsequently over much of the NW Indian Ocean, of more significant organized piracy for ransom. Several nations stationed warships offshore to combat it and protect the Suez shipping lanes, and merchant ships traveling in the region began carrying armed guards, leading to a large drop in ship seizures by 2012. In the late 2010s piracy and kidnapping for ransom by militants in the Philippines's Sulu Archipelago affected shipping in the Sulu and Celebes seas.

Famous Real and Fictional Pirates

Famous names appearing in the long history of piracy include Sir Francis DrakeDrake, Sir Francis,
1540?–1596, English navigator and admiral, first Englishman to circumnavigate the world (1577–80). Early Career

He was born in Devonshire, the son of a yeoman, and was at an early age apprenticed to a ship captain.
..... Click the link for more information. and Sir John HawkinsHawkins or Hawkyns, Sir John,
1532–95, English admiral. In 1562–63 and in 1564–65 he led extremely profitable expeditions that captured slaves on the W African coast, shipped them across the Atlantic,
..... Click the link for more information. , the Elizabethan buccaneers, Edward MansfieldMansfield, Edward,
d. 1667, West Indian buccaneer. Possibly born in Curaçao of Dutch parentage, he is also called Edward Mansveld. He was engaged (1665) by the British governor of Jamaica, Sir Thomas Modyford, to take Curaçao from the Dutch.
..... Click the link for more information. , Henry MorganMorgan, Sir Henry,
1635?–1688, Welsh buccaneer. In his youth he went to the West Indies, eventually joining the buccaneers there. On the death (1667) of Edward Mansfield, Morgan took his place as commander of the buccaneers.
..... Click the link for more information. , Jacques NauNau, Jacques Jean David
, c.1630–1671, French pirate in the West Indies. He is also called François L'Olonnois. He went to the West Indies in 1650. Expelled in 1653 from the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo for buccaneering activities, he found refuge on Tortuga,
..... Click the link for more information. , Jean LaffiteLaffite, Jean
, c.1780–1826?, leader of a band of privateers and smugglers. The name is often spelled Lafitte. He and his men began operating (1810) off the Baratarian coast S of New Orleans and, after 1817, from the island site of the present city of Galveston, Tex.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Edward Teach (BlackbeardBlackbeard,
d. 1718, English pirate. His name was probably Edward Teach, Thatch, or Thach. He probably began as a privateer in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), then turned pirate.
..... Click the link for more information. ). There is some doubt as to whether the activities of Captain KiddKidd, William,
1645?–1701, British privateer and pirate, known as Captain Kidd. He went to sea in his youth and later settled in New York, where he married and owned property. In 1691 he was rewarded for his services against French privateers.
..... Click the link for more information. constituted piracy.

The pirate is a frequent figure in literature, especially in books written for children. Perhaps the most famous fictional pirate is Long John Silver in R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island. Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper each wrote a novel entitled The Pirate, Charles Kingsley wrote of buccaneers in Westward Ho!, and Sir William Gilbert ridiculed pirate stories in his Pirates of Penzance.

Bibliography

See H. A. Ormerod, Piracy in the Ancient World (1924); P. Gosse, The History of Piracy (1932, repr. 1968); C. H. Karraker, Piracy Was a Business (1953); A. L. Hayward, The Book of Pirates (1956); R. Carse, The Age of Piracy (1957, repr. 1965); H. Cochran, Freebooters of the Red Sea (1965); A. G. Course, Pirates of the Eastern Seas (1966); D. Heller-Roazen, The Enemy of All: Piracy and the Law of Nations (2009); J. Bahadur, The Pirates of Somalia (2011).

Piracy

robbery at sea; in international law, the illegal seizure, robbing, or sinking of merchant and other civilian vessels on the high seas by privately owned or state-owned ships. During wartime an attack on the merchant vessels of neutral countries by warships, submarines, and combat aircraft is equivalent to piracy.

Historically, as long as there has been navigation there has also been piracy. For example, in ancient Greece piracy was regarded as a legal way of getting rich, on a par with maritime trade. During the Middle Ages pirates (especially the corsairs) engaged in more than robbery: they seized bondsmen, traded in slaves, plundered coastal cities and settlements and demanded ransom from them, and even collected tribute. Some countries used piracy in the struggle to rule the seas and seize new lands. In the 17th century, for example, England and France used pirates (flibustiers) to fight against Spain and to seize colonies in America.

From the mid-17th century to the second half of the 19th century, legalized robbery at sea (in Russian, kaperstvo) was widely practiced by the major sea powers. For a long time, this infringed on the interests of other nations and undermined the principle of freedom of navigation on the high seas. Attempts to restrict piracy and categorize it as an international crime date from the Roman period.

In modern international law, customary norms have developed, according to which pirate ships and their crews are not to be protected by any state. A pirate ship may be pursued on the high seas, and, if it offers resistance, it may be sunk by the warships of any country. The crew of a pirate ship is subject to criminal prosecution and punishment; the ship itself may be confiscated, under the laws of the country that captures it. Warships of any state have the right to stop a vessel if they have sufficient grounds to suspect that it is engaged in piracy.

The problem of combating piracy by states emerged during the period of the Italian-German intervention in Spain (1936— 39), when German and Italian submarines made piratical attacks on merchant ships of the USSR, Great Britain, France, and other countries. On Sept. 14, 1937, the participants in the International Conference to End Submarine Piracy in the Mediterranean signed the Nyon Agreement, which called for collective measures against piratical acts by submarines. After World War II (1939–45), Chiang Kai-shek’s forces made a number of piratical attacks on the merchant ships of various countries (1953–54). In the 1960’s and 1970’s instances of piracy against small merchant and fishing vessels have become more common in the South China Sea, the Andaman Sea, and the Philippine Sea.

The customary norms of international law on combating piracy were codified in the Geneva Convention on the High Seas (1958).

V. I. MENZHINSKII

piracy

[′pī·rə·sē] (aerospace engineering) capture

Piracy

Pitilessness (See HEARTLESSNESS, RUTHLESSNESS.)Plague (See DISEASE.)Barbary Coast Mediterraneancoastline of former Barbary States; former pirate lair. [Afr. Hist.: NCE, 229]Blackbeard (Edward Teach,d. 1718) colorful, albeit savage, corsair. [Br. Hist.: Jameson, 495]Conrad, Lordproud, ascetic but successful buccaneer. [Br. Lit.: The Corsair, Walsh Modern, 104]Drake, Sir Francis (1540–1596) Britishnavigator and admiral; famed for marauding expeditions against Spanish. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 793]Fomoriansmythical, prehistoric, giant pirates who raided and pillaged Irish coast. [Irish Legend: Leach, 409]Hawkins, Sir John (1532–1595) Britishadmiral; led lucrative slave-trading expeditions. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 1206]Hook, Captaintreacherous pirate in Never-Never Land. [Br. Lit.: Peter Pan]Jolly Rogerblack pirate flag with white skull and crossbones. [World Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 926]Jonsen, Captainboards ship taking seven children to England, seizes its valuables, and sails off with the children, who have their own piratical plans. [Br. Lit.: The Innocent Voyage (High Wind in Jamaica) in Magill II, 488]Kidd, Captain William (1645–1701) Britishcaptain; turned pirate. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 1476]Lafitte, Jean (1780–1826)leader of Louisiana band of privateers and smugglers. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1516]Morgan, Sir Henry(1635–1688) Welsh buccaneer; took over privateer band after Mansfield’s death. [Br. Hist.: NCE, 1832]Silver, Long Johnone-legged corsair; leads mutiny on Hispaniola. [Br. Lit.: Treasure Island]Singleton, Captainbuccaneer acquires great wealth depredating in West Indies and Indian Ocean. [Br. Lit.: Captain Singleton]

piracy

1. Brit robbery on the seas within admiralty jurisdiction 2. a felony, such as robbery or hijacking, committed aboard a ship or aircraft

piracy

software piracy

piracy

Related to piracy: Internet piracy, Software Piracy, Music piracy, online piracy

Piracy

The act of violence or depredation on the high seas; also, the theft of Intellectual Property, especially in electronic media.

Piracy is a crime with ancient origins. As long as there have been ships at sea, pirates have sought to steal from them. Internationally, laws against piracy have ancient origins, too, but U.S. law developed chiefly in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The power to criminalize piracy originated in the U.S. Constitution, which was followed by the first federal law in 1790 and crucial revisions over the next sixty years. Additionally, the United States and other nations cooperated to combat piracy in the twentieth century. This resulted in a unique shared view of jurisdiction: piracy on the high seas can be punished by any nation. In the late twentieth century, the term piracy grew to include Copyright violations of intellectual property such as music, films, and computer software.

The Constitution addresses piracy in Article 1, Section 8. It gives Congress "the Power … To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations." Generally, the definition of pirates meant rogue operators at sea—independent criminals who hijacked ships, stole their cargo, or committed violence against their crew. But standards in all areas under the law changed in response to judicial rulings and to historical incidents, forming by the mid-1800s what became the basis for contemporary law.

In 1790 Congress enacted the first substantive antipiracy law, a broad ban on murder and Robbery at sea that carried the death penalty. In 1818, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the law was limited to crimes involving U.S. citizens: U.S. jurisdiction did not cover foreigners whose piracy targeted other foreigners (United States v. Palmer, 16 U.S. [3 Wheat.] 610). A year later, in 1819, Congress responded by passing an antipiracy law to extend U.S. jurisdiction over pirates of all nationalities.

By the mid-nineteenth century, two other important changes occurred. Penalties for certain piracy crimes—revolt and mutiny—were reduced and were no longer punishable by death. Then the Mexican War of 1846–48 brought a radical extension of the definition of a pirate. The traditional definition of an independent criminal was broadened to include sailors acting on commissions from foreign nations, if and when their commissions violated U.S. treaties with their government. The Piracy Act of 1847, which established this broader definition, marked the last major change in U.S. piracy law.

Today, the primary source of antipiracy law is title 18, chapter 81, of the United States Code, although numerous other antipiracy provisions are scattered throughout the code. Additionally, international cooperation has shaped a unique form of jurisdictional agreement among nations. Significant in bringing about this cooperation was the geneva convention on the High Seas of April 29, 1958 and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The primary effect of such agreements is to allow pirates to be apprehended on the high seas—meaning outside of territorial limits—by the authorities of any nation and punished under its own law. This standard is unique because nations are generally forbidden by International Law from interfering with the vessels of another nation on the high seas. It arose because piracy itself has never vanished; in fact, since the 1970s, it has appeared to have undergone a resurgence.

Apart from its traditional definition, piracy also refers to copyright violations. Committed both in the United States and abroad, this form of piracy includes the unauthorized storage, reproduction, distribution, or sale of intellectual property—for example, music CDs, movie videocassettes, and even fashion designs. The term has been applied, in particular, to the piracy of computer software, which is highly susceptible to theft because of its ease of duplication. Estimates of the cost to copyright holders ranges in the billions of dollars annually. U.S. law protects copyright holders under the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C.S. § 109 [1993]), and a 1992 federal law makes software piracy a felony (Pub. L. No. 102-561, 106 Stat. 4233, codified at 18 U.S.C.A. § 2319 [1988 & 1992 Supp.]). Since the 1990s, a number of international treaties and conventions, as well as diplomatic initiatives, have sought to forge greater cooperation among nations to combat such piracy.

Cross-references

Admiralty and Maritime Law; Computer Crime; Hijacking.

piracy

n. the crime of robbery of ships or boats on the oceans. Accusation, trial and punishment of pirates may be under international agreement applicable anywhere, or under the laws of the particular nation where the accused has been captured.

piracy

1 the taking of ships or persons or property from ships. Piracy is punishable wherever the pirates are found. It is defined by the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea as any illegal act of violence or depredation that is committed for private ends on the high seas or outside the territorial control of any state. 2 used colloquially to describe the appropriation of the INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY of others, e.g. ‘pirate video’.

PIRACY, crim. law. A robbery or forcible depreciation on the high seas, without lawful authority, done animo furandi, in the spirit and intention of universal hostility. 5 Wheat. 153, 163; 3 Wheat. 610; 3 Wash. C. C. R. 209. This is the definition of this offence by the law of nations. 1 Kent, Com. 183. The word is derived from peira deceptio, deceit or deception: or from peiron wandering up and down, and resting in no place, but coasting hither and thither to do mischief. Ridley's View, Part 2, c. 1, s. 3.
2. Congress may define and punish piracies and felonies on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations. Const. U. S. Art. 1, s. 7, n. 10; 5 Wheat. 184, 153, 76; 3 Wheat. 336. In pursuance of the authority thus given by the constitution, it was declared by the act of congress of April 30, 1790, s. 8, 1 Story's Laws U. S. 84, that murder or robbery committed on the high seas, or in any river, haven, or bay, out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, or any offence, which, if committed within the body of a county, would, by the laws of the United States, be punishable with death, should be adjudged to be piracy and felony, and punishable with death. It was further declared, that if any captain or manner should piratically and feloniously run away with a vessel, or any goods or merchandise of the value of fifty dollars; or should yield up such vessel voluntarily to pirates; or if any seaman should forcible endeavor to hinder his commander from defending the ship or goods committed to his trust, or should make revolt in the ship; every such offender should be adjudged a pirate and felon, and be punishable with death. Accessaries before the fact are punishable as the principal; those after the fact with fine and imprisonment.
3. By a subsequent act, passed March 3, 1819, 3 Story, 1739, made perpetual by the act of May 15, 1820, 1 Story, 1798, congress declared, that if any person upon the high seas, should commit the crime of piracy as defined by the law of nations, he should, on conviction, suffer death.
4. And again by the act of May 15, 1820, s. 3, 1 Story, 1798, congress declared that if any person should, upon the high seas, or in any open roadstead, or in any haven, basin or bay, or in any river where the sea ebbs and flows, commit the crime of robbery in or upon any ship or vessel, or upon any of the ship's company of any ship or vessel, or the lading thereof, such person should be adjudged to be a pirate, and suffer death. And if any person engaged in any piratical cruise or enterprize, or being of the crew or ship's company of any piratical ship or vessel, should land from such ship or vessel, and, on shore; should commit robbery, such person should be adjudged a pirate and suffer death. Provided that the state in which the offence may have been committed should not be deprived of its jurisdiction over the same, when committed within the body of a county, and that the courts of the United States should have no jurisdiction to try such offenders, after conviction or acquittal, for the same offence, in a state court. The 4th and 5th sections of the last mentioned act declare persons engaged in the slave trade, or in forcibly detaining a free negro or mulatto and carrying him in any ship or vessel into slavery, piracy, punishable with death. Vide 1 Kent, Com. 183; Beaussant, Code Maritime, t. 1, p. 244; Dalloz, Diet. Supp. h.t.; Dougl. 613; Park's Ins. Index, h.t. Bac. Ab. h.t.; 16 Vin. Ab. 346; Ayl. Pand. 42 11 Wheat. R. 39; 1 Gall. R. 247; Id. 524 3 W. C. C. R. 209, 240; 1 Pet. C. C. R. 118, 121.

PIRACY, torts. By piracy is understood the plagiarisms of a book, engraving or other work, for which a copyright has been taken out.
2. When a piracy has been made of such a work, an injunction will be granted. 5 Ves. 709; 4 Ves. 681; 12 Ves. 270. Vide copyright.

piracy

pi·ra·cy

piracy

pi•ra•cy

piracy

piracy

piracy

pirate

piracy

piracy,

History

Famous Real and Fictional Pirates

Bibliography

Piracy

piracy

Piracy

piracy

piracy

piracy

Piracy

Further readings

Cross-references

piracy

piracy

Piracy

Piracy

piracy

Synonyms for piracy

noun robbery

Synonyms

noun illegal copying

Synonyms

Synonyms for piracy

noun hijacking on the high seas or in similar contexts

Synonyms

Related Words

noun the act of plagiarizing

Synonyms

Related Words