Blackmoor Vituperative

Pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise liner with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel as it sailed along a corridor patrolled by international warships, a maritime official said Tuesday.

The liner, carrying 656 international passengers and 399 crew members, was sailing through the Gulf of Aden on Sunday when it encountered six bandits in two speedboats, said Noel Choong who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The pirates fired at the passenger liner but the larger boat was faster than the pirates’ vessels, Choong said.

“It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape,” he said, urging all ships to remain vigilant in the area.

(from The Associated Press)

Folks, this is what pirates do. They shoot people. They hijack ships. They are violent, vicious criminals.

College students who share DVDs are not pirates.

Friends who share their music with each other are not pirates.

People who use unlicensed software are not pirates.