Hey there, nice people who play ED!
I'd like to share a few thoughts, please bear with me. Also excuse me for a few spelling mistakes, I'm not an English native speaker, besides typing on mobile.
ED has these awesome modes, Solo and Private Group, specially for those people who don't want to risk losing their ships in an unfair manner to other commanders. As someone pointed out a few comments ago, it's akin to the first Elite experience: just you, the NPCs and the world.
Since FDev has introduced Open play, it's possible for those like-minded players to find new people, to get to know them and have fun together, since Private Group only includes already known commanders (AFAIK) Open offers the possibility of making new friends.
But Open is more than that. It caters to any possible and allowed playstyle within EULA / ToS. Meaning, a commander can blow up another commander's ship at his leisure. No reason required. A wing of commanders can outnumber and blow up one single commander / fewer commanders' wing, likewise. That's natural and intrinsic playstyle, as long as Open is regarded.
Here comes the problem: the definition of Griefing. All players will agree that persecuting one commander, by chain interdicting him/her or multiple killing him/her, is Griefing. Why, because it's a modus operandi which only motivation is to grieve the player. Station mining / bumping can be considered Griefing because it's downright annoying for any victim, although a bit controversial (surely Griefing if a player gets successive rebuy screens). Killing new players in Starter Systems is definitely Griefing, because said players don't even have the minimum knowledge to protect themselves within the game tools (they may not know about shields, boost, wakes, interdicting, etc).
Killing one player, one isolated time, is not Griefing. It's intended gameplay in Open. It was largely advertised by FDev, and still is. "Make your own trail, or hunt other players" is in official ads.
So, here comes the second and most important issue. The Crime and Punishment system lacks effectiveness. People should continue to be allowed to Role Play bad guys as much as they wanted, as long as it is just as Dangerous for them to do so, as it is for their victims. Again, I'm talking about Open mode.
We look for a nice C&P with 2.4. But aside from that, here are some possibilities:
1. Make a Criminal tag for any not justifiable aggression, make it Galaxy-wide, not only system wide, make it immune to Log timers, meaning, it only goes away when the Criminal is blown up. Make it immune to Suicidewinder, meaning, the Criminal has to be hunted, and his bounty will progressively reduce based on the value of his/her rebuys.
2. Make it lucrative to escape hunts. Make long hauling missions 10m valuable, or more, so that the profit of the runs can be comparable to the risk of the time lost / rebuy costs for the Traders. Likewise, make Piracy rewarding, tagging stolen cargo as Stolen, in a different manner: Stolen cargo also is worth 10m or more, but can only be sold in certain stations (which can provide content for white knight bounty hunters).
3. Make Starter Systems off-limits to player killing. A 15Ly bubble around them would suffice. New Players have to be protected at all costs, until they can manage escaping intersections or fitting ships properly, in the least.
4. Promote healthy attitudes between players in Open. Make it clear that Open is supposed to be Dangerous and you can lose your ship, no reason needed. This way, players will avoid the delusion of having a "Safe Open".
Anyway, if you've read all this, thanks. I'm not a PvP defender or anything like that. It's just that, wanting Open to be Safe or Fair is pretty awkward, and given the right amount of incentive, any player will probably be ready to risk their ships. With the right orientation from the get-go, people would understand to always "Check your Contacts when entering system", or "Check your Contacts when thatmessage pops in the upper right corner" (2 new contacts), people will eventually prefer to fly in wings (friends is good, right?), more Role Play content would come (we will avenge you!) and so on.