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Of course typically (in the bluebeard era) pirates actually did have a charter, or really a Letter of Marque from the crown. One country's "pirate" was another country's outsourced naval agent. This was true also in the barbary states (hence the song of the US marines) and the straights of malacca et al.

The ones today in the horn of africa though, AFAIK, are indeed free agents.

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There's a reason for the existence of the word 'privateer' and the distinction between privateer and pirate.

The distinction being that if you are on the side that issued the letter of marque they were "privateers" while if they were attacking you they were "pirates"

Not dissimilar to freedom fighter/terrorist back in the day.

That still applies.

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