In today’s media environment, when we read see the term “piracy”, it is generally associated with the unauthorized duplication of content, such as movie piracy, or pirated software.

However, real life pirates are still roaming the high seas and had a banner year in 2007.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, pirate attacks increased by 10 percent over the previous year.

Pirate attacks rose by 10 percent globally in 2007, the first increase in three years, as pirates stepped up attacks off the coasts of Nigeria and Somalia, an international maritime monitoring organization said Wednesday.Last year, there were 269 attacks on ships, up from 239 in 2006 and reversing a downward trend that began in 2003, the International Maritime Bureau said in its annual report released by its piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

These modern-day pirates are able to be adequately armed during their operations to hijack a vessel.

The report said that pirates were better armed and more violent in 2007, with 18 vessels hijacked worldwide, 292 crew members taken hostage, five killed and three still missing.

Guns were used in 72 attacks, up 35 percent from 2006. The report said 64 crew members were assaulted and injured, compared with 17 in 2006, with most of the attacks occurring off Somalia’s coast.

The report said pirates used rocket-propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons as well as larger vessels to launch smaller craft that were used to attack ships farther away from Somali’s coast.