noun
1. an officer or crew member of a privateer
2. a privately owned warship commissioned to prey on the commercial shipping or warships of an enemy nation
WordNet 3.0, 2006 by Princeton University.
Notice how it states nation in there. The East India Company did do that, but remember that they were a government subsidized company. I don't really think that Gateway, Ageira, or Cryer would do something like that...frankly, I think that mercs do the job better.
If you think about it, preying on competitions' ships would be illegal. Thus, it would get the predator companies hiring privateers in trouble. But hiring a bunch of mercs to do the dirty work is different. No one knows anything about it.
That's what we initially did until I decided to use the Sir Francis Drake model for the QCP. He was an official member of the Royal Navy.
The East India Company is a good example, and makes me think that BMM and BowEx would hire independent cutthroats as privateers against the IMG for example.
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