There can clearly be extortion that isn't blackmail ("ten grand or Guido comes round with the baseball bat"). I don't think there can be blackmail that isn't extortion. So first define extortion and then think about what makes a particular kind of extortion blackmail or not.
A transaction that you're a willing participant in isn't extortion (err, unless you're doing the extortion, obviously). Another view might be that a transaction in which you don't get any benefit is extortion. Both of these get uncomfortably close to including taxation (certainly not everyone is willing to pay tax, even if I personally am...) but I don't want to say that if the state does it it's not extortion because that is the thin end of the state being by definition unable to commit crimes, and states can certainly commit crimes against their citizens.
However I'm not sure these worries apply to the blackmail case: the threat states use are fines and imprisonment, not shopping you to your wife. Or we could just assume that solving it is another conversation.
So - extortion in which the threat is to publish or reveal something?
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 04:24 pm (UTC)There can clearly be extortion that isn't blackmail ("ten grand or Guido comes round with the baseball bat"). I don't think there can be blackmail that isn't extortion. So first define extortion and then think about what makes a particular kind of extortion blackmail or not.
A transaction that you're a willing participant in isn't extortion (err, unless you're doing the extortion, obviously). Another view might be that a transaction in which you don't get any benefit is extortion. Both of these get uncomfortably close to including taxation (certainly not everyone is willing to pay tax, even if I personally am...) but I don't want to say that if the state does it it's not extortion because that is the thin end of the state being by definition unable to commit crimes, and states can certainly commit crimes against their citizens.
However I'm not sure these worries apply to the blackmail case: the threat states use are fines and imprisonment, not shopping you to your wife. Or we could just assume that solving it is another conversation.
So - extortion in which the threat is to publish or reveal something?