Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates. The earliest documented instances of piracy were in the 14th century BC, when the Sea Peoples, a group of ocean raiders, attacked the ships of the Aegean and Mediterranean civilizations. Narrow channels which funnel shipping into predictable routes have long created opportunities for piracy, as well as for privateering and commerce raiding. Privateering uses similar methods to piracy, but the captain acts under orders of the state authorizing the capture of merchant ships belonging to an enemy nation, making it a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors.(For a land-based parallel, compare the association of bandits and brigands with mountain passes.) Historic examples include the waters of Gibraltar, the Strait of Malacca, Madagascar, the Gulf of Aden, and the English Channel, whose geographic strictures facilitated pirate attacks.

Pirates! may refer to:

• Sid Meier's Pirates!: a 1987 video game, created by Sid Meier

• Pirates! Gold: a 1993 computer game, a remake of Sid Meier's 1987 release, Sid Meier's Pirates!
• Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004 video game): a 2004 remake of the Sid Meier's video game

• Pirates! (role-playing game): a 2003 role-playing game
• Oasys Mobile: a 2008 version of the 2004 sequel, made for cellular phones
• The series of The Pirates! books written by Gideon Defoe
  • The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists
  • The Pirates! in an Adventure with Whaling (published in the United States as The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab)
  • The Pirates! in an Adventure with Communists
  • The Pirates! in an Adventure with Napoleon
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits, a 2012 animated film based on the books by Gideon Defoe
• The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty, a comic opera in two acts]]
• The Pirates of Penzance, a 1983 film