One other thing to consider about pirates: they might not want (or need) to
take the ship they are plundering. I suppose most people out there are aware of
the tremendous costs and construction times of new ships? So why would pirates
capture frighters unless they really needed the ships, or unless they really
had no time to offload the valuable part of the cargo? You could (and would)
end up with a situation where the pirates were literally taking the ships
faster than planets could manufacture them. This WOULD put an end to piracy,
as there would be no prey left.