BLACKMAIL - A criminal act of extortion,
malicious threatening to do injury to another to compel
him to do an act against his will. Usually involves
the threat to release information, often true, about
the person that will defame his reputation or bring
criminal actions against him.
The criminality lies not in the release of the information
- at least if true - but in the extortionate aspects
of the threat to do so.
BLACK MAIL - When rents were reserved
payable in work, grain, and the like, they were called
reditus nigri, or black mail, to distinguish them
from white rents or blanch farms, or such as were
paid in money.
