Piracy is robbery carried out at sea, or the copying of work you have no right to. Acts of piracy, music piracy, anti-piracy.
The sea sense is not historical — piracy off Somalia and in the Strait of Malacca is a live problem, and warships patrol for it. The copying sense is a metaphor from the seventeenth century, when unlicensed printers were called pirates.
1nounpiracyRobbery carried out at sea.
“Ships in the area travel with armed guards because of the risk of piracy.”
2nouncopyingCopying somebody's work without the right to.
“Film studios lose millions every year to online piracy.”
piracy is a robbery.
Greek peirateia comes from peirates, one who attacks, from peiran, to attempt. Pirate is the same root.
Ancient Greek
πειρατεία
Latin
pīrāta
Medieval Latin
pīrātia
English, today
piracy
From Medieval Latin pīrātia, from Classical Latin pīrāta + ia, or Ancient Greek πειρατεία. The sense of “unauthorized duplication” developed in England between 1660 and 1710. The English Crown granted strict monopolies over book printing to specific guilds, such as the Stationers’ Company. Printing a book without permission was framed as an unlawful attack on the Crown’s authority and revenues. By labeling rogue printers as “pirates”, authorized booksellers equated them with sea robbers operating outside the bounds of civilized society. By the passage of the Statute of Anne in 1710, this usage was deeply entrenched in public consciousness as the definitive descriptor for the unauthorized duplication of books, and was later applied seamlessly to new media as they emerged.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Sea & Sailing