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From the post: "The debate around fixing this problem has focused on whether the data should be removed from the public entirely" I think this entirely misses

From the post: "The debate around fixing this problem has focused on whether the data should be removed from the public entirely" I think this entirely misses the point. The point is that we should enforce, and to the extent needed, enhance, our blackmail and extortion laws to deal with these morally repugnant businesses. Under no circumstances should either the mugshot sites or a site like RipoffReport.com be able to solicit thousands of dollars under the threat that they will continue to disparage and embarrass their victims unless they pay. Google should not be helping these sites either - at least in the case of RipoffReport.com they are actually helping them carry out an extortion scheme against millions of people. Both the sites themselves and any site that helps them achieve their evil goals must be punished.

ghshephard 13y ago
While I agree with you in theory (I think these sites are disgusting) - their legal argument is that what they are doing isn't extortion, because it's not a case of "Pay us money or we publish" - because everything they have on their site has already been published and is public information I think the best approach is shutting down the avenues of payment, so that we can eliminate any way for people to benefit from this behavior.
- downandout 13y ago
  There is a very fine line between saying "I will publish if you don't pay" and "I will keep it online unless you pay". It's pretty clear that this doesn't violate the federal extortion statute, but these cases have not been tested against laws in all 50 states. I'd say the odds are pretty good that there is at least one state extortion statute written broadly enough to cover this type of behavior. All it takes is 1 prosecution in 1 state where there are victims to start taking big bites out of these sites.
ddinh 13y ago
While I agree that these types of practices are repugnant, trying to put even more legal restrictions on speech seems to be a bit overkill for this problem. I'd prefer to see the problem addressed at the source: mugshots should be kept under some form of copyright, in addition to being kept confidential at least until a person is convicted. The copyright would drive these extortion sites underground, reducing impact on peoples' reputations, and the confidentiality would make it difficult to maintain an extortion site by choking off the data supply.

ghshephard 13y ago

While I agree with you in theory (I think these sites are disgusting) - their legal argument is that what they are doing isn't extortion, because it's not a case of "Pay us money or we publish" - because everything they have on their site has already been published and is public information I think the best approach is shutting down the avenues of payment, so that we can eliminate any way for people to benefit from this behavior.

downandout 13y ago
There is a very fine line between saying "I will publish if you don't pay" and "I will keep it online unless you pay". It's pretty clear that this doesn't violate the federal extortion statute, but these cases have not been tested against laws in all 50 states. I'd say the odds are pretty good that there is at least one state extortion statute written broadly enough to cover this type of behavior. All it takes is 1 prosecution in 1 state where there are victims to start taking big bites out of these sites.

ddinh 13y ago

While I agree that these types of practices are repugnant, trying to put even more legal restrictions on speech seems to be a bit overkill for this problem. I'd prefer to see the problem addressed at the source: mugshots should be kept under some form of copyright, in addition to being kept confidential at least until a person is convicted. The copyright would drive these extortion sites underground, reducing impact on peoples' reputations, and the confidentiality would make it difficult to maintain an extortion site by choking off the data supply.