Pirates on the poopdeck: a study of the international law of piracy

Wienburg, Warren

Pirates on the poopdeck: a study of the international law of piracy

Thesis / Dissertation

1998

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Centre for Law and Society

Faculty

Faculty of Law

Abstract

The word "piracy" can be indicative of several different things. Perhaps the most popular sense in which the word is employed, is in connection with the computer software and the music industries. In this sense, piracy indicates the theft of intellectual property rights. This can be considered an odd thing, since the term pirate was originally meant to apply to the subject of this thesis - the maritime criminal who plagues our oceans and threatens our ships. This confusion as to the meaning of the term, and its subsequent adoption by the software and music industries is perhaps very significant. The maritime usage of the word has faded as people began to believe that the only piracy on the high seas was the sort that featured Geena Davis and other Hollywood stars.1 Consequently the average citizen of the west believed that pirates were a rather romantic bunch of people who daringly stole from the rich and were motivated by the prospects of some good clean fun. Perhaps unfortunately for the world these quaint folk had never existed, even a century ago. This in turn led to an attitude of ignorance mixed with a callousness for the fate of the people who knew exactly what the real pirate was all about, the merchant sailor.