Placing a Bounty.

[Drake]

Well, the GMG bounties mention having to catch generic pirates in acts of piracy, so that's fine as far as I'm concerned. Sigma-13 rarely has many Hunters hanging around, at least from what I've seen (and I've spent some time there). BHG fighters/bombers are least common, and anything larger can't legally take the blanket bounty on you. And the larger ships will be completely gone come 4.85, banished to the Omicrons to bother the Corsairs/Outcasts/Order constantly.

As far as encountering people who've changed their name to avoid a bounty, I never have personally because I haven't really gone after bounties. But I know it's happened because I've heard other people bring up specific names, rather than just mentioning it happening in general. It doesn't happen terribly often, due to most pirates falling under one blanket bounty or another.

New York also gets fairly regularly taken over by pirates (though not the pirating pirates), especially in the late hours/early morning hours, EST. I also regularly see pirates actually pirating in California without much difficulty (the authorities seem loathe to leave NY in force).