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Comment by nicholas_tuzzio | Hacker News Reader

This has certainly been an interesting act of an interesting drama, with unsavory players on either side. Not mentioned in this article are purported acts of blackmail which led to the initial closure of /r/CreepShots, which is what I've been most interested in so far as that seems like the most likely part of this drama to result in some sort of legal action.

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18 U.S.C. § 873

Whoever, under a threat of informing, or as a consideration for not informing, against any violation of any law of the United States, demands or receives any money or other valuable thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

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No, it's not blackmail and no legal action will be taken. The ability of some reddit users to be completely blind to either facts or any kind of realistic analysis continues to amaze me.

Worthless pedantry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion

http://extortion.uslegal.com/

I also read the Wikipedia article on blackmail, but I then proceeded to read a bunch of other articles on the web as well. The purported blackmail act was a demand that /r/CreepShots be closed or else information about the moderator would be made available. From what I've read, blackmail doesn't only have to be about money- it can be anything of worth or value, and one could argue this has worth.

I'm on the side of Gawker and the admins, but I'm still interested in anything illegal that might have happened.

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