piracy
Robbery at sea, a violation of international law; taking a ship away from the control of those who are legally entitled to it.
Example
“How should the international community respond to Somali piracy?”
Other meanings
A similar violation of international law, such as hijacking of an aircraft.
The unauthorized duplication of goods protected by intellectual property law.
“Some video game consoles use specially designed cartridges to make software piracy more difficult.”
Related words
- antipiracy
- biopiracy
- counterpiracy
- cyberpiracy
- porch piracy
- anti-piracy
- e-piracy
Word history
From Ancient Greek "πειρατεία".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “piracy” on Wiktionary, by its contributors, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.