Intellectual Property Law

Can stolen property be used against you?

I had a laptop stolen from my house. I had a lot of personal things on it, including private videos that contained nudity, drug use (marijuana), etc. If the police find the person who stole my laptop, could they turn around and file charges against me for what is contained on my laptop? I would like to know before I file a police report. Thanks. No child porn at all - I didnt want to come out and say it, but basically sexual videos ive made with girls ive dated - no hidden cameras or anything like that, all with their consent - No drug deals, but videos of me and some friends smoking weed - I also had about 2000 pictures of myself, friends, family, and any hot girl ive ever come across on myspace, I have saved their picture I think lol I can be paranoid but I had a lot on the laptop- luckily I backed up my stuff awhile ago, but im not very happy that someone has so much personal info/video/pics that I never intended anyone else to see- especially the girls who made the videos with me Why would they ask qs about pictures?? Is it illegal to right click save on photos? I save just about anything interesting (or nice to look at lol) that I come across - certainly ive never been told saving pictures for your own personal collection/gallery is illegal- and thats what I would tell them lol None of the photos are altered, nude, etc... I make lots of videos, slideshows, movies - none for commerical use Thanks for all the great answers. Im 99% sure there is nothing that would get me in trouble on it, but at the least you guys are right it would be a giant hassle, so im not reporting it stolen.

Public Comments

1. Well, first there is nothing illegal about nudity unless it is child porn. In that case, yes, they probably would charge you if they were to find it. Marijuana... unless you are dealing, I doubt. If you are just talking online, I doubt anyone would do anything. But if you are dealing, or are making deals on the comp, it is possible. As far as other things, it really depends on how serious it is and how much can be proven with whats on your comp. And in most cases they are not gonna go through your comp unless you give them a reason. However, unless you KNOW who stole the comp, you will likely never see it again anyways.
2. Well, as far as the nudity goes, there is no crime against that unless it is child pornography. However any incriminating thing on your computer has a defense to it. It has been stolen and out of your possession. An argument could be made that anything illegal that was on it wasn't put on there by you. Of course they could probably date most of the material. Any admission by you about any illegal activities without an actual crime that they can tie you to is not enough evidence against you to charge with a crime per the doctrine of Corpus Delicti. However, like the user above said, it's unlikely that law enforcement would even look at any of the files.
3. They need probable cause to search your machine; otherwise anything they find on there would be inadmissible in court anyway. But--let's say the criminal used your machine to engage in fraudulent activities with a credit card. While they are checking out the computer to investigate these transactions... they see some suspicious directory. Well, that might be enough! Yet... if its just sexual videos-- I don't see what the big deal is. Unless it's child porn. Then I might worry.
4. No the warrant would not cover incriminating content on the victim, unless conspiracy is suspected. Don't sweat it - but take better care in the future of what there might be evidence of ;)
5. Yep, unless it is child porn, you should be fine. It is not illegal to own video with nudity as long as all models are of legal age. They won't charge you with the marijuana use. It is hard enough to prove even if they find it on you (the whole illegal shebang), and there is no way to know when you smoked it, so there is a potential statute of limitation argument for you there. If (and a big IF) they find the person, they will likely just turn the computer over to you. By filing a police report, you have not authorized them to look into the hard drive. There is an argument for the invasion of privacy and your consent to them searching your hardship unless they have cause to believe you have child porn etc. on your laptop. Otherwise, IF they find it, they will probably just turn it over to you. But chances are you will never see it again, or if you do, you won't recognize it. The hard drive will probably be formatted anyway. What you really need to worry about is if you have sensitive information like credit card account number or social security number on it. If you do, now is the time to pull a credit report and buy an alert in case there is fraudulent transaction against your credit history.
6. You have no fourth amendment expectation of privacy in a lost computer. Therefore the police *do not* need a warrant to turn on and examine your files to the extent reasonably necessary to try to indentify you. I would expect them to ask *a lot* of questions about the photographs you mentioned. You *do not* have to answer their questions of course. So even if there are no charges brought against you it would still be a giant hassle. If its a cheap laptop, I'd go ahead and forget about it.
7. If the police ever find it, since it is stolen property then can view everything. Any video evidence of illegal activity COULD be used against you or anyone else on the video. But mostly consider your friends - both for pot and sex videos - are they clean? Past records? Under age? Names exposed? Do you want to put them through possible investigation? Maybe THEY are on probation, and this could put them away for awhile!? Do you even know? I think the answer is obvious.