Originally Posted by
sbrower
This is absolutely untrue. For example, if you are standing in a corner, having a whispered conversation with your spouse/significant other, the fact that you are in an airport does *not* mean that someone can record what you are saying with a parabolic mike.
The fact that you are in an airport has nothing to do with it. It is a public place, and if what you are saying can be overheard, it can be recorded.
Originally Posted by
Dovster
Wrong. In fact, there are a number of states in which it is a criminal offense to record someone without his permission.
That is true if there is an expectation of privacy, for example in a phone call from your home or business.
Originally Posted by
Neutron Star
sbrower nailed it.
A handy guide to audio laws in all 50 states can be found at:
http://www.rcfp.org/taping/. The links on the left of the page have valuable content of the exact state statutes and eavesdropping/wiretapping cases.
Federal law is USC Title 18, Ch 119, Sec 2510-2513.
Ths "handy guide" is for phone calls in general, not in a public place. Wiretapping a phone line requires consent (of one or both parties, depending on the state), but recording a conversation that you can hear in a public place does not require consent, because listening to the conversation does not require consent.
For example, on the California page, it says "conversations that occur at any public gathering where one could expect to be overheard...are not covered by the statute. For example, when a television network used a hidden camera to videotape a conversation that took place at a business lunch meeting on a crowded outdoor patio of a public restaurant, the conduct did not violate the Penal Code’s prohibition against eavesdropping because it was not a “confidential communication.”