Piracy is defined as "the act of attacking and stealing from a ship at sea" by Merriam-Webster dictionary. In Star Citizen, piracy is generally considered to be the goal of attaining valuables via the threat of force.
Overview
Piracy is one of the most dangerous and difficult career path for players to choose within Star Citizen. For the bold, however, piracy is a potentially thrilling career filled with riches and harrowing adventure.
Although piracy as a career path is supported by Cloud Imperium Games, choosing the life of a pirate does not come without ramifications. Pirates cannot safely travel in UEE space, and they are denied landing rights and station conveniences on UEE controlled worlds. In addition to this, bounty hunters regularly patrol lawless systems in the hope of capturing or killing a pirate. Thus, pirates will need skill, intelligence, and luck to survive in the 'verse.
Controversy
Unsurprisingly Pirates are one of the most highly disliked groups of players in the space sim genre, since most players are not fond of losing their hard-earned property to a pirate. However, it is important to note that piracy in Star Citizen will be different than other games in this Genre, most notably EVE Online, as gaining wealth through non-legitimate means will be a legitimate career path supported by CIG and players who chose to travel in lawless sectors accepted the risk/reward scenario.
Other
As of 2018 a Star Citizen backer by the name of Captain-Kidd created a pirate trade alliance called "The Brotherhood Alliance," (TPBL on RSI) where like-minded pirates, outlaws and freelancers can align around a simple "Piracy Code" with the intention to establish the lore of "Piracy" within SC. Discord Linik: https://discord.gg/F7MtNr
The "Piracy Code" was crafted by hundreds of renegades from different pirate organizations, over many months with three best practices based on good sportsmanship along with six lore categories that distinguish griefers, marauders, pirates, outlaws, freelancers and citizens. The document was submitted to CIG and Chris Roberts enthusiastically accepted it and promised to pass it along to the stakeholders responsible for programming the in-game crime stat and rep mechanics. (This document is also the cornerstone of "The Brotherhood Alliance" which built the Pirate Trade Hub around its key principles.)