Monday, October 05, 2009

Is It Extortion?
I haven't bothered to drag out my legal dictionary but I was thinking about Roman PoLetterman's situation.

Let's say that I have information about a married man who has maintained a series of inappropriate sexual relationships with women who work under for him. It is information that the person does not want revealed. So I go to said person and say, "I'd like to pitch you a screenplay idea." Whereupon I lay out the situation of which I have proof.
And I go on, "But I need money to produce this movie. Let's say, oh, $2,000,000. If you're willing to invest that amount of money, you can have full script approval. In fact, it will even give you unlimited access to my files for any editing you'd like to do. Of course, you risk losing your entire investment should things go wrong but I think it'd be a great investment for you."

Now, on a very basic level, the blackmail is obvious. But if it's presented in such a way, can it legally avoid the definition of extortion? If so, there's no crime. I need to dig out the law books and double check.

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