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It's a bit like slander, except there is no false information. I wanted to Google whatever this may be called to see what my options are if this video is ever released. I'm stumped as to what to search for though.

A psychopath of a roommate in college has a video of me doing drugs. I wasn't aware there was a video. It was my first and last time trying drugs. I'm about to start my professional career and this degenerate of a man has the power to take everything I've worked for over the past 5 years away with a simple video. My family's reputation, my own reputation, and my professional career are now all at risk because of one stupid mistake I made. It doesn't seem to qualify as slander because I did in fact take drugs.

In Ireland

doppelgreener
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I messed up
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    I suggest chilling out. They almost certainly can not ruin you. It's just drugs. Do a few googles for things like "List of politicians who've tried drugs" or "List of fortune 500 CEOs who've tried drugs" and you'll get huge amounts of results. If anyone in an interview mentions it you can be all "Yes, I tried it. Pretty stupid. In retrospect it really wasn't worth it ... so I never used it again. And I'd certainly never be using on the job in anycase." If it's sent to your grandma "Yeah gran, that happened. You know college, trying new things. I tried it. I didn't like it." – Frames Catherine White Dec 04 '17 at 11:36
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    and pragmatically you can almost certainly have it taken down from any reputable video site / social media site. Look e.g. at youtube's guidelines: https://www.youtube.com/intl/en-GB/yt/about/policies/#community-guidelines Under privacy it has "uploaded a video of you without your consent" (which is regardless of if you consented for it to be filmed or not). – Frames Catherine White Dec 04 '17 at 11:41
  • It's called defamation. I suggest avoiding him totally until he forgets about you -- and doesn't know when and where you're applying for work. I would believe most companies that care about that are oriented to drug testing for recent use of drugs. – Jennifer Dec 04 '17 at 13:26
  • @Jennifer I'm not even sure how a company would find it, I know Facebook at least allows you to untag yourself from anything you are tagged in and I'd imagine other social media outlets have the same option. – IllusiveBrian Dec 04 '17 at 14:55
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    All you did was drugs? Sounds like you have a great career in Politics! – Digital fire Dec 04 '17 at 15:44
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    I knew a person who knew a person who got a job in the DOJ after telling the interviewer they had smoked weed several hundred times – bendl Dec 04 '17 at 16:28
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    @xLeitix It is in some countries, e.g. in Austria, as you should know. You cannot publish videos or photos of other people if in doing so you would violate the interests of the people therein, as long as those interests are defense-worthy. In this case, I think it would be possible to argue that while the roommate could hand the video over to the authorities, he's not entitled to publish it on the internet. – sgf Dec 04 '17 at 17:00
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    @bendl - one of Obama's top aides, Alyssa Mastromonaco, smoked a ton of weed and was still hired. When the FBI asked how many times she smoked weed, she replied "I don't know" – BruceWayne Dec 04 '17 at 19:36
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    I joined this community to warn you about the answers for the United States. The laws there are a lot different from Ireland and the European Union, where you have the right to be forgotten (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten). In my country (Portugal) which is also in the EU, you cannot release media of me without my permission, period. In fact, here you cannot even have a surveillance camera inside your home pointing to the street, because the people in the public space have the right to privacy. – Edu Dec 04 '17 at 19:40
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    If someone took a video of you taking weed five years ago, and showed it to me, guess whose reputation would be totally destroyed, which person I would never do any business with or deal with personally, because they are disgusting, vicious and not trustworthy. It's not you. – gnasher729 Dec 04 '17 at 22:30
  • In the USA there is what is called Statue of Limitation. Every crime except murder and most heinous crimes can not be prosecuted after ## numbers. http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-law-basics/time-limits-for-charges-state-criminal-statutes-of-limitations.html – cybernard Dec 05 '17 at 01:51
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    @cybernard: Whether it's a crime that can be prosecuted may not be relevant. For instance in the US, you can be turned down for certain law enforcement related careers for things like past drug use, or lying about it. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Dec 05 '17 at 06:25
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    https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/women-who-eat-on-tubes-stranger-shaming-social-media-1403346-Apr2014/

    From this site, it implies that you need consent to photograph people in private. (I assume video is under the same category). Unlike the other answers, this is specifically about "IRELAND".

    However, it might be easier just to go to a lawyer. The police might help if he is threatening to release it, assuming releasing it is illegal.

     – Programmdude Dec 05 '17 at 09:32
  • @LyndonWhite depend on the drug they might not be able to chill out. ;) – Aaron Butacov Dec 05 '17 at 14:42
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    @gnasher729 Did he say "weed"? I'm also not sure why you're so eager to hate someone for exposing illegal behavior - I thought it only was "cool" in some prison cultures - and defend someone throwing around words like "psychopath" or "degenerate". – Oleg V. Volkov Dec 05 '17 at 17:36
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    I don't think that your name calling adds anything to this discussion. If at all, your name calling makes me more skeptical of you. In my experience, those who make intense use of libeling when talking about someone to strangers, they are less honest than the person just explaining the situation in an antiseptic manner. Furthermore, that person was okay to film you, and you were okay with drugs and with not asking him personally about the video. Sorry, but you are both not to throw the first stone. He: Filming. You: Drugs, Libeling, Dramatizing. – Sebastian Mach Dec 06 '17 at 09:17
  • @Programmdude Just to be clear, the Ireland tag wasn't there when I answered the question. I totally agree that the law might be very different in Ireland than it is in the United States. – ohwilleke Dec 07 '17 at 00:19

2 Answers2

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The tort for this kind of activity is called public disclosure of private facts, and almost every U.S. state recognizes that this tort is invalid under the First Amendment in the absence of a legal duty not to disclose of the type existing between an attorney and client, or a psychotherapist and a patient, or a contractual non-disclosure agreement, that does not exist between roommates.

There is nothing illegal about your roommate's conduct. Your best move at this point is to take responsibility for your own conduct, to repent and to convince the world that you're doing your best to get on the straight and narrow going forward.

If your former roommate insisted on payment for not disclosing the information, that would be extortion, but there is nothing wrong with going ahead and disseminating it without trying to obtain something of value from you for not doing so.

feetwet
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ohwilleke
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  • Just to be clear, if these videos are published with intent to defame, that's still perfectly legal? – I messed up Dec 04 '17 at 07:49
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    @Imessedup It is perfectly legal to publish these videos with an intent to destroy your reputation and ruin your life. And, this is a good rule of law with wide acceptance in the American legal culture, not one that is controversial. If you resort to "dirty tactics" you will almost certainly be doing something illegal that could have negative consequences for you and make your life worse off. – ohwilleke Dec 04 '17 at 08:13
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    @Imessedup It is bizarre that we refuse to punish people for speaking the truth, even if they have the wrong ideas in their heads. – David Schwartz Dec 04 '17 at 11:35
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    I was considering answering the question with unfortunate is what I'd call it, but this answer does sum it up better (although I wouldn't necessarily agree with the OP having a mental health problem - I don't know them well enough). But what kind of drug was it? Toking on a small joint that could easily be mistaken for a toothpick, or going the full Trainspotting needle in arm, dead baby in the next room scenario? – Darren Bartrup-Cook Dec 04 '17 at 11:38
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    Man, @ohwilleke, I gotta say, I am surprised at the intensity of your criticism of OP here. Doesn't sound like what I've read from you over the months and, more importantly, seems like it comes from somewhere a bit deeper than just some "dicta" in a StackExchange answer. Responsibility of course lies with those who take certain actions, but I would certainly say that, for example, I owed my college roommates the minimum level of privacy to not surreptitiously record them and then hold that over their heads for the foreseeable future. Do you also blame the victims of revenge porn? – A.fm. Dec 04 '17 at 13:00
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    If you have a dialog with your former roommate he/she might start talking about extortion and blackmail. If so, document it. But be careful not to commit either of these crimes yourself. – user3270 Dec 04 '17 at 14:33
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    Depending on the circumstances of the recording, couldn't this constitute an Invasion of Privacy tort? Or is that also not effective in the U.S.? If it is, couldn't one also sue for an injunction against dissemination of the recording? – feetwet Dec 04 '17 at 15:00
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    @Imessedup "Just to be clear, if these videos are published with intent to defame, that's still perfectly legal?" It's only defamation if the things claimed aren't true. Now, if told you to do something or else he'd release the video, that would be blackmail. – Shufflepants Dec 04 '17 at 15:04
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    Wait a second, so you're saying that revenge porn is perfectly legal? I can go into a gym shower, record everyone, and then start releasing these videos, and legally I am perfectly fine? It seems crazy – Ant Dec 04 '17 at 16:32
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    @Ant Unless someone was under 18 in the shower, in which case you'll get hit with charges of producing child porn. – JAB Dec 04 '17 at 16:40
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    @JAB That's not accurate. Video Voyeurism is a federal crime regardless of age. – reirab Dec 04 '17 at 19:00
  • @reirab So Ant is wrong on all counts, then. – JAB Dec 04 '17 at 19:09
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    @JAB Correct. And OP's statement that "There is nothing illegal about your roommate's conduct" is way too strong. In some U.S. states, if the video contained audio, its recording would have been a criminal action, for example. – reirab Dec 04 '17 at 19:13
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    The querent is from Ireland. The opinion of American courts, particularly with respect to a provision of the US Constitution, is entirely irrelevant to the question. I realize that was a late edit, but nonetheless this answer should be basically rewritten, or deleted. It addresses a different question entirely. And a solid example of why one should avoid answering unclear questions before they can be edited to provide all the relevant information. – KRyan Dec 04 '17 at 22:06
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    @Ant Much of revenge porn is content that was obtained with the subject's consent, but shared without it. – Acccumulation Dec 06 '17 at 00:29
  • @KRyan There was no indication of Irish law when the answer was made. I have no idea how Irish law on this subject would come out. – ohwilleke Dec 07 '17 at 00:17
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    @KRyan – answering for jurisdictions other than the one specified is not only common and accepted on this Stack Exchange but even generally encouraged. – feetwet Dec 07 '17 at 00:53
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I know nothing about the law.

What I have heard from others (that also know nothing) is that in some countries/states it might be illegal to record audio/video without the recording party being present. The exact location (public/private/bedroom/bathroom) of the recording might also make a difference.

(for example)

  • Illegal: Someone hides a running recording device and goes to work (not monitoring it from work).
  • Legal: Someone hides a running recording device and sticks around to experience that which is being recorded.

If any of this is true, and your roommate wasn't there when you got recorded, you might be able to take legal action against him for spying on you.

Try looking into whether it's legal to record using a hidden device where this happened.

LGT
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    Correct: Depending on the circumstances, [tag:recording] can be a felony in many states. Although individuals generally can't force a criminal action (i.e., even if the recording was probably a crime, one can't force the state to prosecute that particular instance), one might sue for an injunction on that basis. – feetwet Dec 04 '17 at 15:02
  • @feetwet True, but you can report a criminal action to the people who can prosecute it. – reirab Dec 04 '17 at 19:21