Is this legal? What would you do?

Assuming you find a legal way to sell this book -- why would you want to?

Ensure to write a GREAT disclaimer IE: This book is entirely fictional. THIS BOOK IS A WORK OF FICTION. etc.

I don't know what you should do but at a short search in Google for the keyword "how to grow weed" over 10 million results were found so it seems like information is available everywhere. I think that talking about drugs is not illegal... Doing what his e-book is teaching may be

I'm suspecting that he is admitting to doing certain things, therefore if it gets into the wrong hands i.e. the police, he can be arrested for it.

I personally wouldn't sell a product like this since you are encouraging illegal activities.

Why would you blast away illegal info about "your friend" on a public forum?!

Google luck getting it hosted anywhere. Most hosting companies won't allow you to host anything that encourages illegal activities.

You'd have to host it yourself on a machine in your home and if your hosting provider finds out? Good buy internet too!

If your friend really makes that much money, he needs to hire a scumbag attorney that can answer these questions for himself. As for you, I hope you've heard of the term "complicity". If not, you might want to get familiar with it fast.

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

This might be one of the worst places on earth to attempt to get advice on such a thing, but I'll give you my advice. Don't even think about getting involved.

And yes, I am totally questioning your sanity.

Are you sure your friend will appreciate you talking about his 'business' publicly on the internet?

stay away from his ebook

OMG. Internet marketing sure a big pot of gold from everybody's eye.

Say to him "Sorry buddy I can't help you this time. Maybe you can create WSO about How to be a great dealer..no drugs of course"

On further reflection, this smells so much like a troll. By the way OP, don't be too surprised when the police come knocking on your door wanting to chat with you about your "friend".

Personally I would steer clear of anything that you have to ask "is this legal?" because it's probably not.

Let's say that someone bought it. Gets caught dealing drugs. Tries to bargain with the authorities by saying he learned everything online from a particular ebook. Then you have authorities at your door asking why you know all of this information and why you are distributing it. Is that something you really want to go through?

And if you STILL want to promote it after all of this... Get a lawyer to advise you, not some people from a forum

Wait!! if he has done illegal activities was he not arrested

Another idea is to like.. "convert" the discussion.

For example, make the title of the book "how to sell and grow as a professional" instead of "how to sell drugs and grow as a mafia kingpin"

Talk about acquiring goods, how to locate prospects, how to locate tradesman, etc.

I would say you are going to want to put MANY disclaimers in the book if you plan to sell it starting with we are in no way responsible for the outcome of your actions following this book. I would also be sure to say that the book is fictional in nature and change names. Be careful with this one.

Has he done time?

I believe, from the law modules of my uni course, that you cannot profit from crime. So when criminals write books, they do not receive any of the sales. This probably isn't a flat law, but it's something you'd need to look into.

To be honest, I wouldn't touch this with the biggest bargepole in the world. It's got so many potential problems...I'd also refrain from mentioning having a drug-dealer mafia-king friend in public.

Has he done time?

I believe, from the law modules of my uni course, that you cannot profit from crime. So when criminals write books, they do not receive any of the sales. This probably isn't a flat law, but it's something you'd need to look into.

To be honest, I wouldn't touch this with the biggest bargepole in the world. It's got so many potential problems...I'd also refrain from mentioning having a drug-dealer mafia-king friend in public.

There's something messed up about this picture.

He makes $50K /mth and he wants to sell eBooks on Kindle?

He's committing one of the most serious felonies and he wants to open an Amazon account and publish a book about it? From his prison cell, maybe.

If I were him I'd be living in a hole somewhere wearing shades and a fake mustache. This would be like Bin Laden wanting to publish a back-packing guide to the mountains of Afghanistan when he lived there in a cave.

Sorry, it does not add up.

Wow. a lot of diverse respones.

Thank you for all the advice. I was only curious because the demand for this product is high and the market is untapped. Check out the keywords yourself. Now, I can see why.

I didn't realize that authorities watched over this market. Probably why drugdealing.com has nothing on it lol.

By the way my friend has a clean record and is actually a smart guy, he just likes to take crazy risks. I'm sure you all have friends like that.

Oh Michael Forbes maybe you should read the wikipedia link you posted. Complicity is not a crime. And there is no possible way to prove any of this is even true. I could have been lying to you right from the start.

1. Since being a drug dealer is illegal, then obviously selling an ebook about how to be a drug dealer is illegal.

2. To make an ebook like that legal he can make the ebook about "How to spot a drug dealer and alert the feds"

The First Amendment is a wonderful thing.

The 'smaller' you look, like an ebook on some website, the more problems you may encounter. But if you have a publisher, are on Amazon, etc., then it may be a question of how to best hide your identity on the talk show circuit.

.

LOL. Make sure to get a good lawyer!

Spreading the word on how to be a drug dealer doesn't sound like the best way to make money online...there are ways of selling products that will help people POSITIVELY!

But if you insist, get a damn good lawyer.

Daniel

LOL. Make sure to get a good lawyer!

Spreading the word on how to be a drug dealer doesn't sound like the best way to make money online...there are ways of selling products that will help people POSITIVELY!

But if you insist, get a damn good lawyer.

Daniel

There are ways to do this but why would you want to be a part of it? There are lots on mafia tell-all stories out there full of stories about how Bennie the Bull whacks Tommy the Turd and ties him up with barbwire then drags him through the Bronx behind his pickup.

Then Bennie makes a dramatic speech to witnesses telling them he'll sneak into your open bedroom window at midnight and cut your off privates along with the privates of your WHOLE fcukin' family if you ever mention what you saw. No real names are used and no real locations.

Another way to go is to do it as a guide on how NOT to be a badguy. Then the stories can be told but the book is full of ridiculous disclaimers like, this guide is not intended to illustrate how to break the law... etc. Be smart, leave it alone. Nothing good can come of it.

Better not to indulge in any illegal work.

You are either crazy like a fox or dumber than dirt, I can't decide which.
You sure did get a rise out of us though, didn't you? As well as numerous suggestions for books.

I suggest writing a nice eBook called "How I Hid Out From The Mob" - you may need your own advice after posting this in a public forum.

~Shakes my head~

I think that each and every person in this thread has the situation all wrong. Let's take a look at his first sentence:

Not approached, but confronted. I'm sure if he could have put quotations around "friend" he would have done that too. This is quite obviously a cry for help. One that went unheeded. Now, the mafia has found him, and taken over his account while he sleeps with the fishes, as evidenced here:

You see! There they are, covering up their tracks.

And you all allowed it to happen...for shame.

Police aren't going to be knocking on your door over an ebook. The amount of paranoid people out there never ceases to amaze me. Sheesh.

In any case though, it's probably not the best niche to pursue. The real problem won't be law enforcement... it'll be payment processors and hosting companies that won't want to touch your product with a 10 foot pole.

Yeah- it's not worth it.

You either

1) Get in trouble, or
2) Help a dude who obviously isn't helping society turn even MORE people into... um, not helpful-to-society people.

As always, the law is different in every single country. There's no single answer to 'is this illegal'.

Amazon, on the other hand, has a bad habit of withdrawing books on a whim, so kindle wouldn't be a good platform.

However, two key questions:
1) Why does a $50,000 drug dealer want to sell an ebook?
2) Would you really want to help him do that?

With all due respect, you really need to rethink your choice of friends. Have you ever stopped to consider the number of lives your friend's "career" choice is ruining? And now you want to help him ruin even more???

Not to mention, the fact that you even WANT to help him sell this type of book speaks volumes about your character... Just something you might want to think about.

Perhaps he should join WF himself and ask if this is legal - why are you doing it for him??

To be completely honest, ebook or not, it's the first amendment right in the United States. I've seen worse things posted, including ways of murdering people and getting away with it. Legally no one can do anything about it... those kinds of things I wish there was an exception, but as long as the software host wants to publish your ebook and allow it to be sold through its system, I don't see what the problem is.

Be careful with 'conspiracy to commit crime' stuff. As in 'how to be a drug dealer'. That ebook winds up on the computer of a 16 y.o. who's dad/mom is a federal prosecuting attorney, and they can make your life difficult.

Scratch that. They will make your life difficult.

It is one thing to throw that information up on a web page, but another entirely to charge for it, with an attached promise of, "You too can make 50 G's per month breaking the law."

Several years ago, overgrow(dot)com, a canadian website about hemp cultivation, got taken down. The mounties and the DEA went after him for the seed sales end of things and there was much concern (read: crapping their pants) among other owners of cultivation sites that RICO charges might come their way - but they all survived. And although it was the selling of seeds across International Borders that they got him on, it was his site with cultivation info that made him a target.

They used his online presence and success as their motivation to make an example out of someone. Be careful making yourself a target to be made an example of ...

Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame) got popped for selling bongs. 9 months in federal prison. His outlet? Chongglass(dot)com. Why? 'Cause the feds wanted to make an example out of someone selling bongs on the internet. That's why.

Further, that piece o' crap legislation (that both republicans and democrat legislators support -I'm not bashing either side from the view of the other), known as the Patriot Act, classifies drug dealers as terrorists - so tread lightly.

Since you asked WWYD?, I personally would steer clear. Don't get me wrong, if people want to use drugs that is their business, not mine, and I think all of this drug prohibition stuff is absolute nonsense and only serves to make really bad and really violent people rich (not saying your friend is), but there is an element of high risk and playing with fire in selling an ebook titled, "How to make 50 G's per month with your own drug dealing system."

Further, I would assume you are going to have to self host it. I don't think any site like Clickbank or Amazon will touch it.

I ain't yo momma though, so do what you will.

I doubt that you will find a merchant account/payment processor that will stand behind a product like that.

And my "concern" is that you've just set your friend up for "25 to life" by making this post. That is, of course, if this so-called 'friend' of yours actually exists. A public forum, whether it's about internet marketing or "dog training" (since we all love that example); is the worst place to ask for such advice, bar none.

If you are for real, it could be a matter of time before the right/wrong person/organization comes across your post and launches a campaign against you and/or your friend.

If you aren't for real, then you better make sure your name, location, avatar picture, IP, proxies, and any other information which can lead a law or non-law enforcement agency back to you are also 100% fake and untraceable.

However, I am convinced that this a joke. Good one!

If this is a joke, then have fun explaining that if they come knocking at your door.

Well, I don't condone drug dealing, but just answering the question here....

He should not market the book as a "how to" that is for certain. Rather, promote it as his personal story, but anonymously. I would also rewrite it in journalistic fashion and tell his story by third-person. So you would have the investigative journalist telling the story but with a lot of quoted first-person inclusions.

Then he can tell "how" he does this and that, but "as told to".

yes, its illegal. Just like FBI taken down megaupload because it supporting the pirated activity, that ebook will also support the drug dealing activity. My opinion is that you make another ebook that use some special method originally used there. Of courseyou have to avoid every illegal things.

Here's someone looking for exactly what you have:

Paper on Drug Trafficking

Lol.. I don't think wannabe drug dealers would be researching on how to become a kingpin online.

That's got concrete slippers written all over it to me mate.

It is 100% illegal, if you start it not only you are harming yourself as earning illegally but your are harming the atmosphere because learning from your book than we will do many illegal things and their whole life will be destroyed

Talk to an attorney.

Talk to an attorney.

Talk to an attorney.

Are you seeing a pattern yet?

Hilarious thread: nice job tossing a grenade into the crowd!

I'm writing a book now and omitting some stuff which I consider shady: I don't want to be part of it. Regardless of whether this drug kingpin friend actually exists, I would encourage anyone with qualms over content to walk away from it.

A guy sometime ago published one, I forget the name, was telling people how to make X or something and he got busted because he was selling the chemicals to people. He had a great backend product. Now, he just takes it from the backend.

As to the legalities, it depends.

Garrie

It's not the right thing to do...but he can sell it as fiction.