The recent, often violent, acts of piracy in international waters certainly make the term “digital piracy” seem inappropriate, and have a number of people asking whether another wording should be used instead.
It was a clever name, at least in the beginning. Hijacked movies, music, games, even books – yeah, it’s the outlaws taking from the establishment, creating some wealth for the common man, yada yada. But in recent weeks, as real-life pirate attacks have gained in intensity, violence, and geopolitical meaning, talking about digital thieves as pirates has come to seem clever to a fault, and inaccurate too.
John Gruber suggests the term bootlegging to be more suitable.