Please, don't call copyright infringement 'piracy'. Piracy is a penal crime that involves violence, theft of property and is often accompanied by murders. Torrenting is just copying data.

I quite like embracing the word personally, I suspect it dates back to pirate radio in the 1960s which in parts of Europe actually did come from ships anchored just outside of territorial waters.

Another interesting example of people embracing the pirate image was British submarines in WW1. The First Sea Lord of the day saw them as ungentlemanly and called for all German submarine crews to be hanged as pirates, this outburst birthed the tradition that a British submarine returning home after successfully sinking an enemy vessel flies the jolly roger! The last time this occurred was after the 1982 Falklands War, I believe HMS Conqueror to this day remains the only nuclear submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedos.

It's much older than that, from etymonline:

pirate (n.)

Meaning "one who takes another's work without permission" first recorded 1701; sense of "unlicensed radio broadcaster" (generally transmitting from a ship outside territorial waters) is from 1913.

pirate (v.)

"to rob on the high seas; commit piracy upon," 1570s, from pirate (n.). By 1706 as "appropriate and reproduce the literary or artistic work of another without right or permission; infringe on the copyright of another."

-- https://www.etymonline.com/word/pirate

sadly it doesn't explain the how of the word coming about.

Embracing is exactly what corporations that abuse copyright want you to do. To quite rms,

"The term "piracy" is used by record companies to demonize sharing and cooperation by equating them to kidnaping, murder and theft." [0]

(Better read it in entirety, if you haven't yet)

[0]: https://stallman.org/articles/end-war-on-sharing.html

It's better than the "copyright theft" slogan pushed by the media.

Yes, but "The Copy Data Bay" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

we had literal pirate parties as fairly legitimate political actors, I think the term has long been reappropriated

You should probably learn the difference between 'literally' and 'figuratively'.

Literal pirate parties exist in Somali and prey on nearby shipping lanes.

If your political party documents and registration are under the name "The Pirate Party," you're quite literally the pirate party.

And you plunder ships in high waters?

literally has been used as figuratively for rhetorical purposes for a long time my overly literal friend

Even if the technical process is just "copying data" there is a whole world of legal and ethical issues around it.

Torrenting non-free products from unofficial sources is illegal.

This is the silliest argument ever. Helping slaves escape to Canada was once illegal. The society understood that such laws do more harm than good and changed them. Same will happen with copyright laws.

Koptimism is the practice of the religion of Kopimi.