Well, they might be docking on Kreuzberg, that Junker base. But still, I agree, I hate this crap. I mean, I'm often nuetral to NPCs that my characters should be hostile to, but I remedy this when fighting players by firing CDs at NPCs.
When it comes to Corsair tagged traders however, Afonso has the following to say...
"Me, a Corsair, senor? No, no, no, I merely capped a few gringo Hessians as I passed through the Omegas, amigo... and, alas, my transponder, it changed, si?"