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eftychia at 02:06am on 2009-03-07Hypothetically ... if I'm standing entirely within my own house with the windows closed, and I can hear every word being spoken on the sidewalk by excited neighbours unaware of how loudly they're arguing, a) do they have any "expectation of privacy", b) am I eavesdropping[1], and c) under Maryland law would it be legal for me to record what I'm hearing? (And would the answer to (c) change if the recording were inadvertent, because I was trying to record some music in my bedroom when they started arguing on the sidewalk?) No parabolic mics or anything fancy, just what I can hear normally from my bed.
I haven't met the new neighbours yet, but I'm already learning about their lives and relationships. *sigh* Loud people. (And yes, the conversation that inspired these questions was taking place just now, in the wee hours. (No, I wasn't in the middle of recording -- that was part of the hypothetical.))
[1] Is it reverse-eavesdropping if the speakers are under the eaves and the listener is inside?
(no subject)
1) People speaking on a public sidewalk have no expectation of privacy. It's a public sidewalk after all.
2) Youre allowed to record the noises that occur within your own home. It's your home, and you do have an expectation of privacy there. You can do with it whatever you like. Someone else invades your privacy, it's still yours to do with. If they are loud enough to be heard inside your apartment it's their own fault if youre rolling tape.
3) If you want to record a conversation you are a party to, it varies from state to state if you need inform the other parties to the conversation (The Maryland Cops tell you that the traffic stop is being recorded, so I suspect there's your answer there).
4) When someone tells you "this conversation may be recorded", it's also permission for you to record it. They can't have it both ways.
5) Surreptitiously recording someone else in a place they do have an expectation of privacy is usually a criminal act. Ambient noise coming in from the outside of your apartment is not one of those places. Heck, you might have to do this if you want to document a noise complaint.
(no subject)
...I don't think you can induce eavesdropping; if you put the speakers up there, it would seem like you're implicitly granting permissions to be recorded. If you could that'd be amusing; we'd all be rich. :)
Here in MA, if a cop can stand outside and observe you committing a crime in your house, that is admissible evidence. (This came up in a recent case, so it's obviously not a clear issue.) That would seem to indicate if you can clearly hear them from your room you're clear; but given that it's both cross-state and cross-sense I worry about drawing conclusions.
(no subject)