system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] When did the bounty hunter profession get turned into being a hitman/assassin?

Boba Fett in ESB seems to be the correct usage of the bounty hunting profession. He was hired by someone (an actual authority if you want to get technical) to bring in a criminal. He fulfilled his contract, he got paid.

When did this turn into these ideas of Boba Fett icing tons of people, scalping Wookies, disintegrating people left and right, and being a cold, ruthless killer? That's not a bounty hunter at that point, it's a hitman/assassin. Especially Jango Fett, who was hired to kill a senator.

And in the Clone Wars, bounty hunters do everything. They steal holocrons, kidnap politicians and children, protect villages, deliver cargo...like what in the world is the definition of a bounty hunter in Star Wars?? 

Or does it just mean something entirely different in the galaxy far, far away. I don't speak Basic.
gpt
A bounty hunter is really just someone who finds/receives open contracts and tries to fulfill them while working as little as possible. The galaxy's most infamous bounty hunter probably had informant networks in almost every system that would give him lists of the best bounties. That way he could execute multiple bounties on each leg of every trip in order to make the most money. He would probably have one huge but risky contract from the empire and many smaller hits/intimidation jobs from other crime syndicates, corrupt politicians, oligarchs, and whoever else had money going at the same time. 

In conclusion, Boba Fett was not only a bad ass motherfucker, but a savvy small business owner.