First, the title should be "Why should blackmail be illegal?"
Second, the answer is: because you have the right to keep secrets, and you should not have to pay someone who happens to learn one of your secrets in order to continue to exercise that right.
[EDIT] You have the right to keep certain secrets, like your bank account number or your sexual preferences, but not your criminal activity. So blackmailing someone by threatening to out them as gay or exposing an extramarital affair should be illegal on the grounds that you have the right to keep those things secret, but blackmailing someone by threatening to expose criminal activity should be illegal on the grounds that helping to keep that secret makes the blackmailer an accomplice to the crime.
You have the right not to release information unless legally compelled to. But you generally have no right to compel someone else _not_ to reveal (true) information no matter what level of secrecy you assign to it.
I think the answer is that blackmail should be illegal, but it requires a deeper answer than just the "right to keep secrets". The article does a fairly good job of breaking down the problem, but it's not easy to summarize.
It's thought provoking because there really is a gray line between where payments to keep information secret is a legitimate private transaction and where they cross into criminality. And there are situations on either side of that line where I have trouble articulating why exactly one feels OK and the other doesn't.
I agree and I think the Bezos/National Enquirer situation is a good illustration of how difficult it is to articulate where that line is.
If the National Enquirer had offered to kill the story in exchange for Bezos paying them a million dollars would that have been as scandalous as their request to have the owner of a well-known newspaper make a false public statement that he disagrees with? Probably not.
Along the same lines, if the National Enquirer threatened to publish your personal text messages and photos unless you paid them a million dollars that would feel infinitely more outrageous than if the exact same offer were made to Bezos. Requesting a million dollars from the richest man in the world just doesn't feel as wrong.
You say that you have a right to keep secrets. Does that means that it should also be illegal to publicize someone else’s secrets, without any threat or demand for money?
That depends on the secret. You don't have the right to keep anything a secret. For example, you don't have the right to keep your criminal activity a secret. But you do have the right to keep, say, your bank account number or your sexual preferences a secret. So yes, I think (for example) outing someone as gay should be illegal (I'd make it a civil offense, not a criminal one).
So if your friend catches your wife cheating on you, he should be the one getting in trouble for telling you? (Assuming this is a secret she'd prefer to keep from you)
That seems overly draconian. If you call someone gay and it happens that they were without your knowledge... then they would have to out themselves in court to prove that you legitimately outed them, even on accident.
Being gay doesn't carry the stigma that it used to, so consider a more serious charge: suppose I out you, rightly or wrongly, as a pedophile. (Note that merely being a pedophile is not illegal.)
I don't think it should be illegal to do that, per se. If doing so intentionally brought undue and unreasonable harm upon me, then the general act of causing that harm could be made illegal, while the specific act which happened to cause it is not. For instance, that could be slander/libel.
If it were a true statement, then I certainly wouldn't have it be illegal. If your society fails to react correctly to the truth, I see no reason to believe it will be improved my making the truth illegal to speak.
If it were a true statement, then I certainly wouldn't have it be illegal. If your society fails to react correctly to the truth, I see no reason to believe it will be improved my making the truth illegal to speak.
However, if I (through legal means) learn one of your secrets and just go ahead and publish it, that's usually perfectly legal. For that matter, if you find out I know something and offer me a quid-pro-quo for signing an NDA and not revealing it, that's probably legal as well. IANAL.
> For that matter, if you find out I know something and offer me a quid-pro-quo for signing an NDA and not revealing it, that's probably legal as well.
This is correct. As long as the quid pro quo isn't illegal or coerced.
"I won't tell your secret and you won't tell mine." - Okay
"I won't tell your secret and you'll pay me a reasonable sum of money." - Okay
"You won't tell my secret and you won't get murdered." - Not Okay (Coercion)
"I won't tell your secret and you'll help me commit this crime." - Not Okay (Illegal)
Sometimes. But most of the time it's a non-disclosure agreement, a settlement agreement, or any number of other perfectly legal agreements between two parties.
Most of the time the illegality comes in if there’s some secret involving criminal activity. “Pay me $100K or I spill the beans about how you’re embezzling.”
I will disagree, you have no right to both keep secrets and allow other people to know them. I think blackmail should be illegal in the case of threatening to disclose criminal activity. But that case has nothing to do with the right to keep secrets. It should be illegal because it's essentially using the threat of state violence for personal gain. Any threats of violence for personal gain should be illegal.
I will note even with this limited scope it gets complicated. For example if you are being harassed and threaten to report the aggressor for criminal harassment if they do not leave you alone you might be commiting blackmail.
First, the title should be "Why should blackmail be illegal?"
Second, the answer is: because you have the right to keep secrets, and you should not have to pay someone who happens to learn one of your secrets in order to continue to exercise that right.
[EDIT] You have the right to keep certain secrets, like your bank account number or your sexual preferences, but not your criminal activity. So blackmailing someone by threatening to out them as gay or exposing an extramarital affair should be illegal on the grounds that you have the right to keep those things secret, but blackmailing someone by threatening to expose criminal activity should be illegal on the grounds that helping to keep that secret makes the blackmailer an accomplice to the crime.