Piracy - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition piracy

Definition :

Piracy [fr. pirata, Lat.], the commission of those acts of robbery and violence upon the sea, which if committed upon land wold amount to felony. Pirates hold no commission or delegated authority from any sovereign or State, empowering them to attack others. They can, therefore, be only regarded in the light of robbers. They are, as Cicero has truly stated, the common enemies of all (communes hostes omnium); and the law of nations gives to every one the right to pursue and exterminate them without any previous declaration of war (see Piracy Jure Gentium, 1934, AC 586, where a frustrated attempt was held to be piracy by that law); but it is not allowed to kill them without trial, except in battle. Those who surrender or are taken prisoners must be brought before the proper magistrates, and dealt with according to law. By the ancient Common Law of England, piracy, if committed by a subject, was held to be a species of treason, being contrary to his natural allegiance; if by an alien, to be felony only; but since the Statute of Treason (25 Edw. 3, c. 2), it is held to be only felony in a subject. Formerly this offence was only cognizable by the Admiralty Courts, which proceed by the rules of the civil law, but it being inconsistent with the liberties of the nation that any man's life should be taken away, unless by the judgment of his peers, the still unrepealed Offences at Sea Act, 1536 (28 Hen. 8, c. 15), established a new jurisdiction for this purpose, which proceeds according to the course of the Common Law.

By the (English) Piracy Act, 1837 (7 Wm. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 88) (which repealed various previous enactments), it is provided by s. 2 that:-

2. Whosoever, with intent to commit or at the

time or of immediately before or immediately after committing the crime of piracy in respect of any ship or vessel, shall assault, with intent to murder, any person being on board of or belonging to such ship or vessel, or shall stab, cut, or wound any such person, or unlawfully do any act by which the life of such person may be endangered, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall suffer death as a felon.

If sentence is passed under this section a public execution will have to take place, as the section

is not within the (English) Capital Punishment Amendment Act, 1868 (31 Vict. c. 24).

Section 3 of the Act of 1837 as now amended provides that:-

3. Whosoever shall be convicted of any offence which by way of the Acts hereinbefore referred to amounts to the crime of piracy, and is thereby made punishable with death, shall be liable to penal servitude for the term of the natural life of such offender.

As to the punishment of principals in the second degree and accessories before or after the fact, see s. 4 of the same Act. Various acts which do not amount to piracy at Common Law have been made piracy by statute, e.g., rendering assistance to a pirate, or boarding a merchant ship and destroying her goods (8 Geo. 1, c. 24, s. 1, made perpetual by 2 Geo. 2, c. 28). As to piracy, see 13 & 14 Vict. cc. 26, 27. As to the jurisdiction of the Admiralty in regard to the Colonies, see 12 & 13 Vict. c. 96 and 13 & 14 Vict. c. 26; to India, see 23 & 24 Vict. c. 88; in territorial waters, 41 & 42 Vict. c. 73, s. 6.

The Treaty of Washington Act, 1922, s. 4, provides for the trial and punishment of persons who violate any of the rules set forth in Article 1 of Sch. II. of the Act as if for an act of piracy. These rules prohibit (a) the seizing of a merchant vessel in time of war unless first ordered to submit to visit and search; (b) the attack on such a vessel unless it refuses to submit to visit and search after warning or to proceed as directed after seizure; (c) the destruction of such a vessel unless the crew and passengers have been first placed in safety. As to the meaning of 'piracy' in a policy of marine insurance, see Bolivia Republic v. Indemnity Mutual Insurance Co., (1909) 1 KB 785.

Means the unauthorised use, interception, or receipt of encoded communication especially to avoid paying fees for use, United States v. Harrell, 983 F. 2d 36 (1993).

Piracy of works, an offence against the law of copy right or an author's right to his works, which consists of an exclusive right to the sequence of the words as they stand; and if any one else reprint these without addition, subtraction, or trans-position, it is an inroad on the author's right. But, on the one hand, the sentences and words may be so rearranged that, although nothing be added to or taken from them, they give a substantially new idea to the public, and are therefore no infringement of the law. And, on the other hand, although parts may be omitted and new passages introduced, yet, if these alterations be merely colourable, and it is really an attempt to profit by taking the ideas of another, the publication is a piracy. An author who has been led by a former author to refer to older writers, may without committing piracy, use the same passages in the older writers which were used by the former author, Pike v. Nicholas, 1869 LR 5 Ch 251; as to pirating news from another newspaper, see Walter v. Steinkopff, (1892) 3 Ch 489.

The remedies for piracy are an action at law for damages, and an injunction to restrain its continuance. See INJUNCTION and COPYRIGHT.