Court OKs Covert iPhone Audio Recording

Tootech writes "Using an iPhone to secretly record a conversation is not a violation of the Wiretap Act if done for legitimate purposes, a federal appeals court has ruled. 'The defendant must have the intent to use the illicit recording to commit a tort of crime beyond the act of recording itself,' the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. Friday's decision, which involves a civil lawsuit over a secret audio recording produced from the 99-cent Recorder app, mirrors decisions in at least three other federal appeals courts."

Comments

Re:It's still illegal in Illinois

[hedwards]

I'm sorry, but if that's how you talk to cops, you kind of deserve whatever happens to you. You never argue with a police officer, ever. If you disagree there's a venue to handle that, it's called court. And you're even allowed to have an adviser that we like to call a lawyer help you out there. Arguing with cops whether you're ultimately right or not isn't going to do you any favors, LEOs generally have some degree of discretion. It also can very easily come back to bite you on the ass when they start looking more closely at what you're doing, there's no law against them being particularly stringent in writing every applicable ticket or citation that applies to the situation. Just stick to the facts, comply with what you're told to do and if anything happens you can always take it to court.

People don't generally end up being beaten that are complying with the orders they've been given. Sure it happens, but it's hardly a common occurrence.

Re:It's still illegal in Illinois

[ErikZ]

The people who fired Sherrod owned the complete, unedited copy of the tape.

AND you're being misleading. For everyone who doesn't know about the issue, the "Edit" was to cut the tape. You know, instead of playing the whole thing, you only show the 2 minutes of relevant material.