Please, don't call copyright infringement 'piracy'. Piracy is a penal crime that involves violence, theft of property and is often accompanied by murders. Torrenting is just copying data.
I quite like embracing the word personally, I suspect it dates back to pirate radio in the 1960s which in parts of Europe actually did come from ships anchored just outside of territorial waters.
Another interesting example of people embracing the pirate image was British submarines in WW1. The First Sea Lord of the day saw them as ungentlemanly and called for all German submarine crews to be hanged as pirates, this outburst birthed the tradition that a British submarine returning home after successfully sinking an enemy vessel flies the jolly roger! The last time this occurred was after the 1982 Falklands War, I believe HMS Conqueror to this day remains the only nuclear submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedos.
Meaning "one who takes another's work without permission" first recorded 1701; sense of "unlicensed radio broadcaster" (generally transmitting from a ship outside territorial waters) is from 1913.
pirate (v.)
"to rob on the high seas; commit piracy upon," 1570s, from pirate (n.). By 1706 as "appropriate and reproduce the literary or artistic work of another without right or permission; infringe on the copyright of another."
This is the silliest argument ever. Helping slaves escape to Canada was once illegal. The society understood that such laws do more harm than good and changed them. Same will happen with copyright laws.
