When Does Free Speech Become Extortion?This is a discussion on When Does Free Speech Become Extortion? within the XDTalk Chatter Box forums, part of the XD Talk category; This whole thing seems illegal or at least distasteful. Yes, people should not get arrested so they aren't in this position, but still. I see ...
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06-30-2012, 09:50 AM
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#1
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XDTalk 5K Member
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When Does Free Speech Become Extortion?
This whole thing seems illegal or at least distasteful. Yes, people should not get arrested so they aren't in this position, but still. I see it as an invasion to privacy. AND asking for money would seem to me to be illegal extortion. If they publish the photos freely as public record, fine, but to extort money to take them off? Nothing to prevent the owner fro opening multiple websites and asking money for each one.
Website offers to delete its information about your arrest — if you pay about $200 - KansasCity.com
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A new website has published names, addresses and photographs of people recently arrested in Johnson County — but then offers to delete the information if the arrestee pays a fee of $199.99.
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06-30-2012, 10:15 AM
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#2
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I think this might qualify...but once someone has info and then goes to another person and says pay me or I'll release it, I think it falls under extortion of blackmail...the tricky part here is that the info is already released...so I don't know how that werks with the technical definition of extortion...guys a d-bag for it anyway
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06-30-2012, 10:23 AM
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#3
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I see this ending badly for the website owner. Somewhere in KC, there is someone who will react violently to this and they may or may not care about collateral damage.
I see no real problem with the underlying principal of the site to publish the info about crimes committed, but asking for money to not 'promote' someone does fall into the extortion category. I look at it as if Jesse or Al came to someone and said, "I have a video of you telling a racial joke. Pay me and I won't organize a protest at your house over it."
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06-30-2012, 10:37 AM
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#4
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I live in KC. This was all over the talk radio shows yesterday. The guy even came into the studio to do an interview. Here's a good recap of the situation:
BLABBERMOUTH OWNER A MEDIA DISASTER | Bottom Line Communications Kansas City PR Firm
The guy did meet with an attorney prior to starting this, and supposedly it is all legal because the information is already public. You can't be charged with blackmail for making public something that is already public. (Again, this is the site owner's explanation). Not sure how extortion is avoided, but apparently it's not that either.
Regardless, the Johnson County Sheriff's office is investigating. And there were SEVERAL very ticked off individuals who had gotten letters with mugshots from this guy who called in to the radio shows.
The site owner has already received death threats. Surprise, surprise.
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06-30-2012, 10:46 AM
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#5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tom_d
I look at it as if Jesse or Al came to someone and said, "I have a video of you telling a racial joke. Pay me and I won't organize a protest at your house over it."
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Note, I'm not at all siding with this schmuck at all. But what you just described is someone threatening to disclose non-public information (presumably, otherwise how could he mobilize the protest?)
The information this site owner is "promoting" is already public information that anyone could go learn about you from public records.
That's the hair-splitting (and apparently legally significant) difference.
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06-30-2012, 10:50 AM
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#6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ksbsnowowl
Note, I'm not at all siding with this schmuck at all. But what you just described is someone threatening to disclose non-public information (presumably, otherwise how could he mobilize the protest?)
The information this site owner is "promoting" is already public information that anyone could go learn about you from public records.
That's the hair-splitting (and apparently legally significant) difference.
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Kinda like what happened with the media and Zimmerman... Minus the extortion angle of course.
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06-30-2012, 11:23 AM
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#7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tom_d
Kinda like what happened with the media and Zimmerman... Minus the extortion angle of course.
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Not even close as I assume he's not editorializing on the arrest records.
And the extortion came in with the donations to Z's "defense" fund. 
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06-30-2012, 01:57 PM
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#8
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People can remove themselves from the chance of getting publicized further by paying a one-time fee of $199.99 or — if they aren’t in a hurry — by performing 180 hours of community service or attending 90 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The person’s address, however, would remain highlighted on the website’s homepage map
oh sure thats a great deal, basically 2 dollars per hour of the time. Great deal. I assume its online in the mean time, and gossips of the neighborhood are going wild on the poor guy.
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06-30-2012, 07:12 PM
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#9
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how is "pay me or we'll tell people about your past" anything but extortion?weather or not it is part of the public record.
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06-30-2012, 07:32 PM
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#10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Groo
how is "pay me or we'll tell people about your past" anything but extortion?weather or not it is part of the public record.
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And yet the justice system does nothing. I guess someone will have to sue.
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The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is also looking into the website, said spokesman Tom Erickson.
“They’re public record,” Erickson said of the mugshots that Creed gets from the sheriff’s website. “Although we don’t endorse anyone who uses them in that fashion, we don’t have a lot of ability to stop it.”
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When Does Free Speech Become Extortion?
