piracy
n. uncountablen. the act of attacking and stealing from ships at sea. It also means copying and selling movies, music, or software without permission.
n. the practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea; also refers to the unauthorized reproduction or use of copyrighted material. Often used to describe large-scale intellectual property theft in digital contexts.
The movie studio is fighting online piracy.
International navies patrol the coast to protect merchant vessels from piracy and kidnapping.
While historical piracy was defined by physical violence on the high seas, modern digital piracy poses a significant economic challenge to the global entertainment and software industries.
From Medieval Latin pīrātia, from Classical Latin pīrāta + ia, or Ancient Greek πειρατεία (peirateía).
Uncountable when referring to the general practice or crime; occasionally countable when referring to specific historical instances.