...actually, piracy in freelancer is pretty much like real-world-piracy.
in the real world there are countless merchant ships, some very few pirates, who pick up one of them, and hold them hostage until their company pays their ransom, or a military ships come by and either scares them off, or sends boarding teams and kills the pirates (and half the hostages:().
In most cases the ship owning company pays the demand, and the pirates leave with their cash.
Pirates do not have the ability to sell what ever there is on the ship, we are speaking of thousands of tons here, they just settle for some cash, even if its not even 1% of the cargo's worth.
No in freelancer, the trader pays directly, but you can assume his company payed for it, since the pilot will have only a small wage for himself. And the pilot has no choice in the matter, what gives him a perfect roleplay excuse for "No blow me up, its cheaper", he can beg for his life, and tell the pirate, that his company does not pay up, offer some of his cargo, or whatever.
Pirates who are out there for the roleplay, usually play along, but most only want the cash or the blue line, aka feeling king.
The only thing that's not cool, is that police or military ships have no chance of intervention, piracy is to fast, trade ships just blow up, and that LN-Cruiser can look after the debris later, traders go down to fast for some good roleplay.
