Definition of "piracy" []

• Robbery committed at sea. (noun)
• A similar act of robbery, as the hijacking of an airplane. (noun)
• The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy. (noun)
• The operation of an unlicensed, illegal radio or television station. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Johnnie Carson, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, points out the upsurge in piracy is just one of the ripple effects of what's happening on land."
• "I claim that the term piracy was co-opted in recent years by business interests to include those making unauthorized copies of music/movies for their private purposes - where there was no profit or reselling involved."
• "Yet a similar confusion of thought is involved in this indiscriminate application of the term piracy, unless we emphasize the fact that in this connexion it must be divested of its ordinary moral connotation."