Pirates! Facts Main Page

General History
How piracy affected government, life, trade, etc. A big picture for piracy, divided into Ancient times, Roman times, and Medieval times. This section also covers the Golden Age of piracy and Contemporary piracy.

Famous Pirates
Biographies for some of history's most notorious "pirates". Over 10 biographies are provided, with regular additions. 

Types of Piracy
Information on modern pirates: both maritime and software. Definitions for corsair, buccaneer, and privateer. 

Pirate Facts
Covered are pirate lifestyles, habits, activities, and other related information. Also included are boarding techniques, prosthetics, rewards, punishments, and weapons. Additional information is added regularly. 

Pirate Ships
A fairly self-explanatory section title. Included are pictures of pirate vessels as well as explanations of maritime terminologies.

Pirate Vocabulary
Provides basic pirate vocabulary definitions. 

Discussion Board
Frequented by pirate enthusiasts and historians alike, this is the place to start a discussion or ask a question about pirates.

Contribute Content
Although the best effort is given to update this web site with additional information exams and other responsibilities keep me from adding knowledge as often as surely some visitors would like. Please consider helping out by adding your content for others to learn from.

Tour of Pirates!
Given the amount of information available on this web site and perhaps the less-than-obvious organization it may be a good idea to start a tour, which goes through every section step by step. Tour progress is saved automatically so that you can return to an unfinished show at a later convenience.

Pirates! Main Page
Please visit the Pirates! Fact and Legend web site main page.

Pirates! Store
Offering the Internet's best deals for high quality pirate related merchandise. Pirate T-shirts, Flags, and Hats. Click To Browse our selection!

Employees report software infringement
The BSA is handling 20 settlements from companies that were using software illegally. The information, as usual, was supplied by employees via anonymous hotline. 

Anne Bonny movie a possibility
It is rumored that an Anne Bonnie Hollywood production is planned. The script for the new movie is currently being reviewed, and casting could follow shortly. The primary question is what kind of role this movie should take on: pure entertainment, or pure education. If previous Hollywood pirate related movies are any indication, the movie will primarily be for entertainment purposes, with exaggerated story line and many pirate legends. Who should portray Anne Bonny is yet unknown, but many suggest  that it should be Ellen DeGeneris. 

Canadian hacker pleads guilty: receives community service 
After charged with illegal access to a variety of networks, including systems at NASA, MIT, and Harvard University, a Canadian teenage hacker, reportedly, has pleaded guilty. The hacker was presented with a computer at the age of 14, within a year he was spending around 10 hours a day attempting to gain illegal entry into a variety of computer systems. Canadian police launched an investigation after various Canadian  institutions reported that an unauthorized user was debilitating their systems. The perpetrator is to be punished with 240 hours of community service.

SPA: Tighter international cyber crime measures in the works
A leading British judge is calling for a world treaty that would recognize computer hacking as an international crime.

SPA: Software pirate gets jail time
A software pirate gets 30 months in a Florida penitentiary for selling illegal software. Selling pirated programs for twelve years, the software pirate is estimated to have cost the software industry hundreds of thousands of dollars.

SPA: 1997 Net Act sees first conviction
A 22 year old college student at the University of Oregon receives a 2 year sentence for uploading illegal computer programs to an internet ftp site. The SPA (software publishers association)  hopes this will send "a strong message [to others] that copyright laws must be obeyed". Under the 1997 Net Act, anyone caught distributing illegal software over the internet can be jailed for up to 3 years and fined up to $250,000.