I have done what I suggested above 4 times. In one of them, a pirate intedicted me while I was scanning the system. He asked what cargo I had, and when he could see that I had none, he flew away. Wherever you are, they only shoot if you're doing missions, have been shooting their guys or if you have cargo. When you go scanning planets, nobody will attack except real commaders, who can attack you either inside or outside the newb zone, though it's more likely to happen if your at one of the newb hotspots outside the newb zone, like Diaguandri or Deciat.
There is absolutely no advantage in staying in the newb zone unless you only want to play in open. Outside the newb zone, you get better ships, better equipment, more exciting things to do, make more money, etc.
When you leave the newb zone, it's probably a good idea to switch to solo mode until you have a ship that's good enough to escape from any commanders that want to blow up you ship just for a laugh.
Further to my comment above: "Any self-respecting ganker is going to think twice about the morality and ignominy of shooting a shieldless Sidewinder with a harmless pilot, not that shields would help in that case anyway", it seems that some commanders are happy to accept the ignomony. When I arrived at Diaguandri as a harmless shieldless Sidewinder, two guys, one in a Krait, the other in a T10 decided to gank me. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and wondered whether they just wanted to give me some friendly advice, so I turned to face them. Boom! Luckily, I spawned in the station in Diaguandri rather than where I set off from, so I fitted a couple of heatsinks and went back to play with them. They soon found me again and interdicted me, so I hit the silent running button but I hadn't bound it on my new sticks, so I was blown up again; however, on the 3rd, 4th and 5th times I was able to escape every time in my shieldless Sidewinder with D-rated thrusters and power distributor. After that they wouldn't interdict me anymore. I call that a win with a score of 3:2 to me. Shame on them. Each time, as soon as I dropped out, I boosted and hit silent running. I guess they couldn't see me after that. They were trying because I saw a few shots go past one time. Without shields or weapons and with the cargo scoop and PD switched off, I was running very cold anyway, so I could go a long time without having to use a heatsink. So there's a tactic if you're in open and bad guys try to gank you. The Sidewinder has the advantage of its small size, which makes it very difficult to hit as an unresolved target. When I did this before, I was vulnerable to frag cannons at close range, but as long as you can keep your distance, you're fairly safe.
I think I might get my PvP Sidewinder and hunt these guys down. They can never land a shot on it. I just keep interdicting them and run away until they start crying or leave. You don't need a battleship to dish out justice.
I already turned it in. Oh well.
