A little venting session!

OldRadios wrote:

dave54 wrote:

OldRadios wrote:

et2 wrote:
X2 - you can record anything that one would reasonably expect to be heard in a public place. In your bathroom ... No. Outside where anyone would reasonably hear it during normal conversation... No problem. I'm surprised Don Sterling hasn't sued the pants of those who recorded his "private" conversations.

You can record a private conversation if you are one of the parties involved in the conversation. Only one of the parties needs to OK it.
Sterling's girlfriend recorded their conversation between them so his permission was not needed.

Varies by state. It may also be illegal to publicly release a recorded conversation without consent of all parties. Again, check local state laws. In either event, law enforcement will not get involved. It would be a civil tort.

The two-party consent statute was held unconstitutional this year so the remaining 10 states should be changing their laws or not enforcing them. Still best to check if you are in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Was that ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court? The only ruling I know of this year was from Illinois State Supreme Court. As I recall the case involved recording police officers in a public place while performing their duties. Such rulings have been made previously throughout the country without causing the states that do have two party consent laws to change them. The Illinois law was overly broad. For instance just videotaping your kids in public and picking up a conversation could violate it. I am not a lawyer however, in my research on the subject, I have found that as a general rule conversations which are in public and loud enough to be overheard can be recorded without consent. The situation in this thread sounds to me like it falls under this interpretation.