At 09:24 AM 3/24/00 -0500, Fisher Mark wrote:
>Reese wrote:
> >>What about if I purchase the Navaho module for my Dragon
> >>Dictate, voice input software, and have it translate the conversations I
> >>capture from by back porch?
> >>
> >IANAL. This may fall under illegal eavesdropping, whether you make a
> >recording MayOrMayNot be a determining factor. Check with your local
> >authority figures.
>
>IAANAL, but I suspect that anything like this, including satellite
>broadcasts, is just waiting for some defendant with a whole lot of money to
>prosecute all the way up to the Supreme Court. My thought, based on what I
>understand of the law, is that anything that cannot be specifically owned by
>someone (i.e. not a physical object and not protected IP), once it enters
>your property, it is yours to do with as you see fit as long as you don't
>try to sell it or otherwise profit from it. This, of course, is not the
>current legal view, but I think that the legal view of this situation will
>eventually change.
When I brought this up in conversation yesterday a colleague said that
there is a generally recognized assumption of privacy when two or more
parties to a conversation take measures, for example closing the door to a
room or encryption, to define a set of listeners who are assumed to be
privy to the contents and exclude those who are not. If so, how high
should the bar need to be raised by the parties to enjoy such
protection? If I employ a parabolic mike to pick up my neighbors'
conversations on their property, surely those sound waves were permeating
the air of my property. Should I have that right?
--Steve
