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> The term has originally nothing to do with not having a license.

Nautical pirates were called "pirates" specifically because they didn't have a license to engage in the activity. The ones who had licenses ("letters of marque") were called "privateers".

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I do not think that is why they were called pirates. The term privateer seems to come from 17th century, while "pirate" is a general term for "one who attacks ships" from 14th century. Privateer / corsair is thus a pirate as well, even though not officially called that by their friendly government sanctioning their robbing activities. The terms pirate and corsair do not seem exclusive, corsair is rather a special kind of pirate - one with a government license.

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