I am not reading this thread due to not wanting Spoilers of the movie, but…
“Pirate Utopias” by Peter Lamborn Wilson is an interesting study of Buccaneer free-states.
[QUOTE=Chief Pedant]
The fantasies of the poor and disenchanted that their lot is the direct result of institutional oppression (bad government and naughty corporations) will always play well as romanticized story-telling.
[/QUOTE]
Bear in mind that it’s not entirely a fantasy.
[QUOTE=mswas]
I am not reading this thread due to not wanting Spoilers of the movie, but…
“Pirate Utopias” by Peter Lamborn Wilson is an interesting study of Buccaneer free-states.
[/QUOTE]
David Cordingly is also one of the top living experts on Pirates. His book Under the Black Flag is quite enjoyable:
Even better, on the first POC DVD there is a special where they talk about real pirates and interview him!
[insert my boyish glee at pirates here]
[QUOTE=Frank]
Which, for argument purposes, didn’t terribly differ from the trial of any felony offender of the day. The “enemy of mankind” thing was to solve jurisdictional problems - any nation could try pirates no matter where they were caught. That’s sort of similar to terrorists today, except, of course, that pirates were actually tried.
[/QUOTE]
Conversely they were hung and their bodies left to rot as an example to others…or perhaps left staked out at low tide as food for the crabs. Yuck. AFAIK, terrorists haven’t been similarly summarily executed…at least not in vast enough numbers to register on my own radar.
Personally, I’d take an indefinite stay at Gitmo (with the prospect that this whole house of cards is going to come crashing down soon enough and there WILL be trials eventually) to the pirate alternative. 
-XT
I had a problem with them hanging that kid; you mean you couldn’t take some 11 year old who has been hanging around with pirates, and retrain him and so on and so forth, that you would rather hang the poor bugger than give him a second chance?
[QUOTE=John DiFool]
I had a problem with them hanging that kid; you mean you couldn’t take some 11 year old who has been hanging around with pirates, and retrain him and so on and so forth, that you would rather hang the poor bugger than give him a second chance?
[/QUOTE]
The criminal justice system at the time wasn’t big on rehabilitation, and youth wasn’t considered a factor when it came to punishing capital crimes. The youngest person executed in England was 7, in 1708, for theft.