Last month, the F.T.C. similarly warned six companies that they might be violating the act by offering to share tenants' rental histories with landlords.
In general, "we're looking for anyone who might be violating a U.S. law and is posing a threat to the country," she explained.
If the president, during a campaign event for a governor, urges the crowd to support the governor, he might be violating the federal law.
Mr. Bloomberg said the message suggested that the speaker's staff might be violating campaign finance rules by mixing politics and government business.
Because the E.P.A. is continuing its investigations, agency officials declined to provide an estimate of how many companies might be violating pollution laws.
Mr. Bonbrest said he did not know that Lavo might be violating a noise standard, and a few weeks later, he said the company had hired a professional to measure the sound.
In a 1973 case, acknowledging he might be violating the law, he vacated the three-year term of a woman convicted of selling drugs, noting that she had terminal cancer and less than a year to live.
Worried that they might be violating American law, senior officials at Lloyds stopped the stripping operation for Iranian banks in 2004, but transfers from Sudan were stripped as recently as 2007.
Mr. Murray, the lawyer, said that kind of editing was precisely why Mr. Lines might be violating the law by changing scenes the filmmaker intended to portray as his account of a historical event.
"That is not entirely unjustified," he added, "since they have to consider whether they might be violating laws of the country the person resides in, where they are unlikely to hold a securities license".
Amy Goldrich, a lawyer consulted by the New Museum, while declining to name specific laws that the artists might be violating, said that tolerance for false ID cards had all but evaporated since 9/11.
