Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with illegal

"He took too much LSD in the '60s".

bunky — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:42:26 -0800

"He took too much LSD in the '60s". No, really. Any number of Americans approaching old age are doing so with long-term illegal drug habits. If you've seen the Osbournes on TV, Ozzy seems the picture of the sort of cognitive impairment you can expect someone to have after years of illegal drug use. Is this typical of such a person? Can someone be rendered mentally incompetent by means of a history of long-term illegal drug use? Would someone with obvious cognative impairment like Ozzy still be considered legally competant?

What happens if an arresting officer records your conversation with the public defender?

doomtop — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:48:02 -0800

What happens if an arresting officer records your conversation with the public defender? When you get arrested, at some point the officer will ask if you want to speak to a lawyer. If you say yes, they put you on the phone with a public defender.

As I understand, it is illegal for law enforcement to record that conversation you have with the public defender.

If they do record it, what are the consequences of that? Does that usually affect the outcome of the charges you were originally arrested for?

Possibly Illegal Tupperware Spam

theseampsgoto11 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:39:15 -0800

I have a name and contact info for the individual who's been spamming me. What can I do to report him/get rid of him/make his life difficult? Details inside. I've been getting Tupperware spam for a while now. The email has no unsubscribe link (does that technically make it illegal spam?) so I hit reply and wrote "please unsubscribe me from this list." I was surprised when I not only got a response, but a fairly self-incriminating one at that (full text is below). I could just send it to the spam folder (I'm using gmail), but the audacity of this guy is really getting under my skin. Any suggestions on who/what I can report him to?

from Gregg Kits
to Axxxxxxx Lxxxxxx

Sorry I cant delete or not send email to anyone on the list.

From: Axxxxxxx Lxxxxxx
To: Gregg Kits

I don't want to delete the email - it's spam and I want to be removed from the list.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 9:50 PM, Gregg Kits wrote:

I purchased a list from a company and cant pick and choose who I send to it’s the whole list. Just delete my email.

From: Axxxxxxx Lxxxxxx
To: Gregg Kits
Subject: Re: Get It All Set & Super Summer Saving!

please remove me from this mailing list

How is it that people can post videos of illegal acts onto YouTube and they can't be found?

Sully — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:40:16 -0800

How is it that people can post videos of illegal acts onto YouTube and they can't be found? I remember watching a video where someone has a camera mounted on the front of their motorcycle and they thread through traffic at insane speeds. I always thought that there would be some electronic trail the cops could follow. A more recent example includes one where hunters shoot some ducks with callous regard in a pond, and another involves a man who let his 7-year old drive the car at 70 kilometers per hour. In both cases, the police are showing stills from the videos on the news in the hopes that someone can ID them. But can't they just trace it back electronically? I would have thought that the cops' ability to track down the posters would have been better than this.

Is setting up a website for a probably illegal business illegal?

maxwelton — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:25:45 -0800

A friend has been offered some web work for a company I have suspicions might be offering something illegal. I'm not asking for professional advice for him (he seems to have made up his mind), but the conversation I had with him has me wondering. Say he builds a web site for (conjecturing here) "Maggy's Massage" which is in all likelihood a front for a prostitution gig. Leaving aside any moral judgments about that type of business, and assuming he never saw, heard, read or in any way discussed the true nature of the business with the owners, is there any potential legal liability if he is paid to design and build a web site for them, and they are later busted?

If so, what would the nature of the trouble be? Would it differ if it was a "one time" gig versus a monthly maintenance contract? I assume the water would be muddied considerably if there was any sort of incentive attached ("hey, if the site does well we'll give you a bonus based on sales")? Would it differ if the website was just brochureware (some photos of a pretty woman and text promising "the best massage ever") versus something with, say, a scheduling component?

I've never been approached with anything like this though I've contemplated what I would say if I was (actually, what I'd say would be "let me talk with my lawyer and I'll get back to you"). My advice to my friend was to do just that (talk with an attorney before saying yay or nay), but I'd love to have my curiosity sated.

Examples of whistleblowing by government employees?

heatherfl — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:58:32 -0800

Examples of whistleblowing by government employees? Does anyone remember famous examples of this that I can research? So far, I just have the NSA wiretapping case from 2005.

I am doing research for a hypothetical(!) situation involving an illegal government project that has 1) a classified status and 2) implications for national (US) security. I have to figure out the possible options, outcomes, yadda yadda.

Thoughts on any other aspects of this? Suggestions? Advice?

Thanks!

Streaming movies @ work = fired?

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:14:15 -0800

I've been streaming movies and tv shows while at work. Is my job in jeopardy? Let me say first that I am stupid.

I work at a university at a job I love, and for the past few months have streamed movies and tv shows to watch at work while I'm working. Some sites I've used are legit (I think - see question below), like Hulu and Netflix, but I've also used other sources, to find other movies at various sites. I assumed it was legal because it's so easy to find and access these movies. I know. Stupid.

I feel terrible about this misjudgment. I really love my job and now I'm afraid that my hard work and professional relationships could really be damaged by this. Also, I don't want to make any enemies within the information technology department. I have to work with them often, and I've been careful to rebuild bridges with them that had been burned by the person who held my position before me.

The paranoia is settling in. I have some questions.

. I'm thinking that Hulu, Netflix and other network sites are legal, but asking here just to make for absolute sure.

. Am I screwed for real? Is it just a matter of time before legal letters are sent, and these viewings traced to me? How closely is this stuff typically monitored? I'm guessing that students probably do this a lot. Can it be traced to my office/building?

. If I use something like CCleaner, will this help? I'm also going to clear my Google Desktop Timeline. Anything else I can do? Besides work on my multi-tasking habits, obviously.

Thank you, Hive Mind.

Adderal addict wants to go straight

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:12:46 -0800

How willing would a doctor be to overlooking my illegal use of prescription medication in prescribing it for me? I've been taking study-aid drugs since freshmen year of college. Living in a dorm being surrounded by people prescribed Adderal and Concerta made it hard to resist. At the worst I took it around once a week for about a month. I never got any 'high' from my use.

Now in my Sophomore year, I'd like very much to be properly prescribed for some medicine, as I feel that the extreme procrastination I had experienced for the past many years is an indication of myself having ADD.

I liken my use of Adderal to when I first wore glasses and I felt amazed that 'everyone else saw like this'.

However, I fear of addiction and already feel as though I am building a tolerance, and in more recent usages I noticed an uncomfortable lack of circulation in my extremities, requiring me to shake my fingers, arms, and legs every so often.

How can I tell a therapist that Ive done something illegal?

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:38:29 -0800

How can I tell a therapist that Ive done something illegal? I drunkenly did something that I am quite ashamed of and got me kicked out of my living situation. And could have resulted in prosecution. I feel it could be because of some long ignored issues, and I may need professional help working through it so it doesnt happen again or manifest itself dangerously in some other way.

But- I am still covered under my parent's insurance, and have the same privacy concerns mentioned here

So:
1) How can I explain the situation to a therapist in order for them to help without worrying about possibly incriminating myself or the information later coming out somehow?

2) How can I pay for the visit(s) without my folks seeing therapist visits showing up on the insurance and asking questions?

Throwaway email: ashamed.afraid@gmail.com

Born in the USA

chara — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:07:26 -0800

In the United States, if a college-bound student is under the age of 24 and s/he is a legal citizen, but his/her parents are undocumented/illegal residents, how does this student fill out the FAFSA? Also, are there other outside financial resources for these students that are private and not affiliated with the federal government?

(This is a hypothetical situation; I'm asking for the sake of my own curiosity).

Which came first, the mushroom or the spore?

samph — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:58:04 -0800

How do psychoactive mushroom spore vendors not get in trouble? So there are internet vendors that sell magic mushroom spores "for microscopy purposes only" (wink wink). I know that the spores themselves contain no active chemicals and are legal in most states.

I know of a particular vendor is located in my state where the shrooms don't grow in the wild. So I'm assuming they are growing the mushrooms, and I'm wondering how they get around the legality of that. I mean isn't it pretty obvious to Johnny Law what they must be doing?

Researching going legit with dubiously sourced music collection

superfurry — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:55:59 -0800

Legitimizing iTunes Library. I have *ahem* a friend. This friend has a reasonably large digital music collection being managed by iTunes on a Mac. He would like to understand the cost of ensuring this collection is 100% legal, having realized that the vast majority of it is not. Purely out of curiosity, this *ahem* friend, has decided that maybe it would be a worthwhile thing to look into the cost of legitimately purchasing all the music in his digital collection. When this friend thinks about the fact that his largely ill-gotten music is being managed by iTunes, and that the iTunes Store probably 'stocks' a large proportion of this music, there might be a cool iTunes plugin that can do some amazing trick to give him a very good idea what the cost would be of purchasing all this music. Seems like a great opportunity for Apple to develop something like this.

Is there such a thing ? No matter whether it uses the iTunes Store, Amazon, etc.

It should be a plugin for iTunes or some other clever techy thing rather than manually doing an album count and then working it out from there.

Would also be ideal if it were OS X compatible.

Illegal Immigrants in College

madmamasmith — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:04:22 -0800

Can anyone tell me the percentage of children of illegal immigrants who attend college? Specifically in Texas. We are arguing the HB 104 (in state tuition bill) in my government class and I need to know how many children of illegal immigrants who were not born in the US actually attend institutions of higher education....

Illegal Eviction Notice in Los Angeles

chez shoes — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:11:48 -0800

Have you dealt with an illegal eviction notice in Los Angeles? Got home from work today to find a typed letter from my landlady asking me to move by 4/15. Long story short - she's facing foreclosure; I live in a tiny single in a 3-unit triplex; she wants to move into my single and rent out the 2+2 unit that she currently lives in for more $$$.

I'm aware of the laws governing this under the RSO, and I'm aware she did not approach this legally and have already filed a complaint with the agency.

As far as I know, she has no legal right to take any action against me until she actually files the Declaration of Intent to Evict - can anybody confirm this? Additionally, I'd like to hear from anybody else who has gone through this - any tips, support, etc. you have to offer.

I know you're not my lawyer. I'll get one if I have to, but right now I'm trying to rely on Nolo Press and my library science degree to get me through this.

Can a workplace offer selective 401k benefits?

rinosaur — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:36:14 -0800

Can a workplace (in PA) offer selective 401k benefits? I started a new job in August 07 with a small company (less than 10 full time employees). The company is in Pennsylvania. When I interviewed for the position, I asked if the company had a 401k plan and was told that they did not. Earlier this week I overheard a co-worker mention to our payroll person that she wanted to change her 401k

Is it legal for a company to offer 401k benefits to some employees and not others? If it's not legal, what is my best bet for approaching my boss (the owner of the company) about this issue? Ideally, I'd like to keep my job (for the time being - this isn't the first shady thing I've encountered with this company) AND get enrolled in the 401k program.

Haunted by a Crooked Boss

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:31:12 -0800

It's probably too late to do anything about a crooked boss, but I'd still like the Hive Mind's opinion... (long story inside) I no longer work for said boss, but some of his business practices sort of stick in my craw and also make me wonder if I can be culpable years after the fact.

I worked for a small steel brokerage - Boss (owner), two salesmen, and me, who did all the clerical work as well as the payroll, and accounting (month-end reports, etc). As time went on, I noticed a definite distinction between the male employees and me. For example, I was the only employee who had the cost of her Blue Cross deducted from her paycheck. After I accepted the job, it turns out that one of my very unsavory responsibilites was to save the ink cartridges from our computer printers and the toner cartridges from the copier and then go back to Staples or OfficeMax and claim that they'd been empty when we'd opened the package. (I'm not making this up.) At the time, I couldn't really afford the cost of a lawyer to look into the situation, and I needed the insurance coverage, so I didn't squack.

When I hired in, I was told that after three years I'd be enrolled in the company's pension plan. After I'd been there three and a half years with no further info about the Plan, I asked Boss. His response was "I've decided not to add any more people to the plan." This, too, seemed illegal to me but his brother-in-law was an attorney, and I couldn't really afford to persue the issue.

While I worked there, I noticed that he avoided paying bills whenever possible. For example, when LTV Steel was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, he bought thousands of tons of steel from them, which he re-sold. When the bills from LTV eventually came due, he instructed me to create fake debit memos from a variety of non-existant companies stating that the LTV steel was defective. He went so far as to have me put lint and such from a vacuum cleaner bag onto the copying machine glass so that the Xerox copies of said debit memos looked like they'd been in our files for many months. (I kept Xerox copies of his handwritten notes directing me to make such memos look more authentic, etc, just in case some time down the road LTV's lawyers came after me.)

Another "tactic" of his was to have five or six different registered business names, using mail drops as the mailing addresses. Each of those businesses had a phone number that ended up in our office, though, and I was actually instructed to used a different tone of voice and different name depending upon which line I answered. He also used these various "companies" to give credit references to one another. So, for example, if he was trying to buy steel from a new supplier, he'd give ABC and XYZ steel as credit references, both of which were part of his telephone bank. (His father is a CPA and handled the books for the company and apparently approved of all this deception.)

Anyway, I'm sure it's too late to hit him up for any personal compensation that I was entitled to during my years of employment (such as why did I have to pay for my health insurance and no one else did?), but every now and then I feel a twinge of guilt about all the deception I was involved in and I wonder if there's some way that I can turn him in? To whom, I don't know. And I'm also curious as to whether or not I'd be liable in years to come if one of his many schemes that I assisted with (and there are many, many that I was involved in that I haven't mentioned) are brought to light?

Letting a subletter use your internet connection

sparrows — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:31:16 -0800

If you let a subletter use the internet connection that's in your name, what are ideas for holding them to a promise that they won't do things that could get you sued by the RIAA (or arrested)? Is there any legally meaningful way to notify an ISP that Person X, not you, will be the connection's sole user for X months? This will be wired DSL (no wifi).

How much legal trouble could I get into?

geodave — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:14:20 -0800

I'm hosting one of those "confessional" websites, and I want to know how risky it is to post clearly-illegal "confessions". I hate vague questions like this, and I hate even more that I have to ask one.

I host a confessions website, and most of them are simply explanatory, standard and neutral from a legal standpoint.

We've had about twenty come in that are blatantly illegal, perverse, and downright scary. If it were me I'd almost be inclined to just delete them, but I'm wondering if they can be posted to the website without exposing myself to law enforcement officers trying to track down who confessed such things.

This is the setup:

The confession form exists on my site, a standard shared server (Dreamhost). All it does is take a textarea field and email it to a Google Mail address I maintain. Then, I check the email, copy the confession and stick it into my site's database. This extra (pointless) step obfuscates things like IP addresses and timestamps so it's nearly impossible for me to figure out who confessed anything.

So, if I host a blatantly evil and illegal text confession on my site, how exposed am I? They can go nuts subpoenaing both my hosting provider (Dreamhost) and Google Mail, but could I be at risk of something ridiculous like a computer seizure?

Both involved servers are in the USA, but I live in Canada.

Video on how to make your own drugs?

kandinski — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:13:08 -0800

[YouTubeFilter] Music video of band making illegal drugs from supermarket items? Less than a week ago I saw a video in YouTube in which the members of a band made controlled substances (first some kind of amphetamine, then some quaalude-like downer) from supermarket-bought items like kitty litter and white vinegar.

The video also shows them playing under the influence, with overlaid tags stating the symptoms. It is presented as though it were the documentation for a scientific experiment and preceded by a disclaimer. It is quite fun to watch, and I can't seem to find it again.

Can I tell my doctor I smoke weed?

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:41:53 -0800

Are there any potential downsides to telling one's doctor that he uses marijuana? I'm thinking about it getting in my records and being used against me for insurance purposes or possibly getting out. How confidential is this sort of thing?

Is it legal to employ skilled workers as temps for many years?

Charlie Lesoine — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:18:21 -0800

Is my employer breaking the law by keeping people as temps for several years? The work is skilled and many people work for 3 or more years as temps before being made permanent employees. The company does it's own hiring on site, but once hired, employees have to fill out paper work with a chosen "temp employment agency". This seems like a scam. Any lawyers out there know if this is illegal? This is in California.

Advise for illegal immigrant ?

spock — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:07:25 -0800

A student at our university was recently shocked to learn that his mother and step-father are illegal immigrants who have been in the country for approx. 20 years. He was born in Mexico but has brothers and sister born in the U.S. His parents work, own a house here, ect. He has a job, is going to be a junior at the university and is planning on getting married. He has a Soc. Sec. card, but now wonders if it is even legit. He wants to find out what he should do next but is worried that he'll be immediately deported if he tries to get help. As a white-bread citizen, this is all Greek to me. What should I advise him to do?

Marrying a 20-year visa overstayer

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:36:45 -0800

My girlfriend is a very illegal immigrant living in the United States. When we get married, what will the residency process be like? About 25 years ago, my girlfriend (let's call her Jane) moved to the US from the Pacific Islands with her father, mother, and siblings. From what I understand of the situation, her father was on an L1 visa and the rest of the family were on L2s, all temporary visas. Those visas expired within a couple years of their immigration, and yet they have lived their lives here illegally for over 20 years. (Jane has a SSN and a passport that her father obtained for her while she was still too young to understand the particulars.)

Jane was in grade school at the time of her move to the United States. She went on to finish high school, get multiple degrees from a very prestigious university, and has worked for the last ten years at a very large US company.

Jane has been living illegally in this country for two-thirds of her life. She was a child when she moved here, and has no attachments to and few memories of her "home country". As far as she's concerned, the United States is the only home she's ever known.

Jane and I have been together for a while now, and I don't see us separating anytime soon. We live together, we do everything together, we have a beautiful dog we love very much - we're your typical DINKWAD couple. Neither one of us is religious, so marriage is little more than a legal construct involving the consolidation of assets, as well as a social affirmation of mutual affection. The whole "rest of your life together" thing - we've always just assumed that as a given.

Two things have happened that have made her illegal status more pressing:
1. We'd like to go on an international vacation together, but if we leave the country, she will likely not be able to return.
2. Her boss is pressuring her to go on an out-of-the-country business trip. (Her employer does not know about her status.)

So now to my questions: When we get married (I'm a full-bred citizen), what should we expect her residency/citizenship process to be like? If we're already married, can she be deported because of her lifelong illegal status? How long after filing for residency status will we be able to take our first vacation together? Will she have to worry about USCIS interfering with or jeopardizing her current employment? I understand from previous similar AskMeFi threads that it's a very bad idea to tell any lies to USCIS. What if they ask about her family? Can information gathered during her residency application process result in her family being deported?

Without any doubt, her situation is delicate, and we do plan to hire an immigration attorney. In the meantime, I would like to be prepared with as much information as I possibly can.

Thank you for any advice you can give.

Is a text sex story that involves kids considered child porn?

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:20:03 -0800

Are stories (text) about children engaging in adult-only activities (and I don't mean paying their taxes) considered child pornography? At risk of becoming an enabler, I stumbled onto quite a number of sites that are in plain view and unhidden, per se, that describe such events taking place, and apparently have been on the net for quite a considerable time. How can these sites be allowed to remain in existence -- foreign servers, perhaps?

Legalizing basement apartment in NYC?

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:11:20 -0800

Anyone have experience with legalizing an apartment in NYC? I inherited a basement apartment with my single-family Queens house. Have a great relationship with my tenant and do not want to evict. Recently, though, I've received notices from the city to discontinue "illegal use of space for living." In addition to evicting that would involve tearing out the tub, a wall, and other stuff. The previous owner received these notices too, but she ignored them and told the inspector to come back with a warrant (which never happened).

I'm willing to try this and risk the fines but would prefer to legalize the place. However, it has small windows and is probably not up to current code for light & air. Does anyone here know if there's a way around this? Any grandfather clauses for old places (the house is 120 yrs old, the apartment maybe 30)? Any recommendations for an attorney or expeditor who could help?

The DCE website offers little hope but I'm holding out for insider info if anyone can help. Thanks!