This occurred to me WRT the recent Bezos/Enquirer news. I’m no expert in criminal law, but I understand that there are many instances in which blackmail is illegal.
Ought it be? If the information is gained legally? Doesn’t a large portion of capitalism rely upon taking advantage of superior information. If I legally gain information you would prefer to keep quiet, why oughtn’t I be allowed to see how much your privacy is worth to you?
Personally, I’m not sure where I stand on this, and am willing to be persuaded. I’m generally a HUGE supporter of personal privacy, and am aghast at the power of corporations and industry to amass and use information on individuals. But intellectually, I’m not certain about the philosphical/public policy reasons behind blackmail being illegal.
Is the world a better place with more blackmail in it?
Any time the free market exchange goes something like, “If you don’t do what I want, I’m going to take an action that makes the world shittier,” that’s a free market exchange I’m happy to get rid of.
As a general rule, I’m not supportive of blackmail. But in my mind that is somewhat different to saying something ought to bear criminal penalties.
I would imagine we could each come up with a bunch of activities that “make the world shittier,” but that are not crimes. And, I doubt we all would agree on what made it onto our individual lists.
Here’s a perhaps silly example. Let’s say I know my friend is cheating on his wife. I tell him to pay me money, or else I’ll tell her. I did nothing illegal to obtain the info - maybe my friend admitted it to me. Did I commit a crime? Who is the victim?
Is it a crime? I don’t know; IANAL. I think it is, but I’m far from certain.
Should it be a crime? Yes, I think it should. You’re trying to extract something of value to you from your now ex-friend via threat. Maybe it isn’t “your money or your life,” but it’s on the same continuum, just at a lower point on it.
Who’s the victim? Your ex-friend and his wife. If he gives in, they’re poorer by the amount of money you’ve demanded. If he doesn’t, you’re disrupting their marriage. In either case, it’s doing harm to them.
If you felt it was in her/their interest for you to tell the wife, and you were trying to act in their interest, you’d just tell her. So it goes without saying that that’s not your intent.
You’re not taking away that option. If blackmail is illegal, it gives the embarrassed person another option. They can buy the person’s silence OR let the police/courts handle the matter. They may still choose to pay the person to make the matter go away faster and/or it might be cheaper (court costs money, they’d have to give the details to the police etc…), but they’re not forced to.
Don’t think that just because something is illegal, people won’t do it.
Also, making it illegal should, in theory, keep it from escalating since it gives people a [legal] out. Especially in cases where they’d otherwise [illegally] retaliate instead of paying.
So, if they’re less likely to make the offer, then the information is of less value as well. If I happen to see someone I knew in high school cheating on his wife and I were the kind of guy to try to extract money from him over that, what good would that info be to me now? I’m not going to go out of my way to find and tell his wife just for kicks. I’ll probably just forget about it in a few days.
Yes, that’s why I mentioned that it’s only an option, they do still have the option of paying the person and hoping the person won’t talk anyways.
This is, of course, the logical extrapolation. You think you’re paying a lot *now *for internet access? Imagine if your ISP discovers this revenue source…