Buccaneers were at least sanctioned by one government or another.
cause
.
i chose this option because buccaneers carried out their activities under the authority of the British Crown and the pirates carried out their activities without a commission, which made them criminals.
They were under no authority
outlaws
As silly as my answer sounds, I chose pirates to the more evil of the 2 evils because of Hollywood ... on television and the 'silver screen', there seems to be a pattern of calling the lesser evil a buccaneer and the more evil a pirate. Hollywood will refer to both as pirates but as the story plays-out, they seem to drill-down to separate the 2 rivels (in the story) and the worst of the bad guy pirate is always referred to as a pirate, while the better of the bad guy pirates is most often referred to as a buccaneer.
More widespread areas of operation, and acted against all ships not restricted to enemies of a State
pirate did all his work for him self or his group. Buccaneer most of the time worked under lisence of a king. But the the hard ships to poeple they caused would be the same
