References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence in many texts including in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and abduction of women and children to be sold into slavery was common.

In the pre-classical era, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession it apparently was widespread and 'regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living'. In classical antiquity, the Phoenicians, Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates. The earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the ships sailing in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters in the 14th century BC. Spelling did not become standardised until the eighteenth century, and spellings such as 'pirrot', 'pyrate' and 'pyrat' occurred until this period. The meaning of the Greek word peiratД“s literally is 'one who attacks (ships)'. The English word 'pirate' is derived from the Latin pirata ('pirate, corsair, sea robber'), which comes from Greek ПЂОµО№ПЃО±П„О®П‚ ( peiratД“s), 'brigand', in turn from ПЂОµО№ПЃО¬ОїОјО±О№ (peirГЎomai), 'I attempt', from ПЂОµбї–ПЃО± ( peГ®ra), 'attempt, experience'. 9.3.6 Uniformity in Maritime Piracy Law.9.3.1 Effects on international boundaries.Pirates of the era have been further popularized and stereotyped by many subsequent works of fiction, most notably by the novels Treasure Island (1883) and Peter Pan (1911), two film adaptions of Treasure Island ( 19) and, more recently, by the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, which began in 2003. Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, published in London in 1724, contained biographies of several pirates of the 'golden age' and brought them to public attention. Some nations have used their naval forces to protect private ships from pirate attacks and to pursue pirates, and some private vessels use armed security guards, high-pressure water cannons, or sound cannons to repel boarders, and use radar to avoid potential threats.ДЄ romanticized version of piracy in the Age of Sail has long been a part of western pop culture. The international community is facing many challenges in bringing modern pirates to justice, as these attacks often occur in international waters. They also use larger vessels, known as 'mother ships', to supply the smaller motorboats. Today, pirates armed with automatic weapons, such as assault rifles, and machine guns, grenades and rocket propelled grenades use small motorboats to attack and board ships, a tactic that takes advantage of the small number of crew members on modern cargo vessels and transport ships. In the early 21st century, seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant issue (with estimated worldwide losses of US$16В billion per year in 2004), particularly in the waters between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast, and also in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore. Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of states. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). It does not normally include crimes committed against people traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. While the term can include acts committed in the air, on land (especially across national borders or in connection with taking over and robbing a car or train), or in other major bodies of water or on a shore, in cyberspace, as well as the fictional possibility of space piracy, it generally refers to maritime piracy. Privateering uses similar methods to piracy, but the captain acts under orders of the state authorizing the capture of merchant ships belonging to an enemy nation, making it a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors. A land-based parallel is the ambushing of travelers by bandits and brigands in highways and mountain passes. Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic structures facilitated pirate attacks. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, while the dedicated ships that pirates use are called pirate ships. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods.

Pirates 2005 film