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Comment by oasisbob | Hacker News Reader

Yes, in some states it's legal to record telephone calls with the consent of a single party.

I read his disclaimer as "I'm in a one-party consent state, but the person I'm talking to may or may not be - and I have no idea how admissible this would be as evidence but I'm pretty sure I'm not breaking the law."

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What matters is the state that you are making the recording in.

So if your state is a one party consent state and you are one of the parties it doesn't matter what the rules in the other state are.

Now what could get interesting is if you are in a one party state and you are calling on a cell phone and you hit a tower in another state. So then you claim that you are in State A and if they were to put in the effort to check or cell records they saw you hit the tower in State B then I would guess you would have to offer further proof of actually making the call in State A other than your statement that was the case. (As opposed to a land line where it's clear where you are located).

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/recording-phone-calls-and-co...

I also wonder if it's where the person who initiated the recording is, or if it's where the recording is taking place.

If it is where the recording is taking place, a VoIP provider could do all the recording on servers in a state friendly to the recording, regardless of where the participants in the call are.

What if you just route all your calls through a VoIP server in a one-party state, and record the call there?

Interesting thought. [1] Probably doesn't fill the letter of the law. Otoh that is what I would call "a leg to stand on". That is it gives some wiggle room and reasonable doubt that you weren't following the law. Would depend on the exact wording of each States law and how tight it was. Ianal but often things boil down to this type of thinking with other things as you probably know.

[1] For that matter what if you conference in a friend and the friend is the one that did the recording.

The contact information on his website gives a phone number and address in Philadelphia, which is in a two-party state.

I have no idea what happens, though, when one party is on a two-party state and the other is in a one-party state.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#One-p..., California courts seem to have decided that the most restrictive wins. The footnote reference link is broken, however.

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