Doesn't matter. It's the interception itself by any means, including electronic devices, that matters. That is what is covered by the wiretapping laws, and what is generally referred to as wiretapping.
Go ahead, plug a computer into your neighbor's VOIP phone line and start recording everything he says. Don't listen, just record. Then turn yourself in and see whether you get prosecuted under the federal wiretapping laws.
All this Clintonesque word-weasling on the Republican side is getting sickening.
So I guess this means we should put you down on the side of "don't try to figure out what the bad guys are trying to do to you."
```It's the interception itself by any means, including electronic devices, that matters. That is what is covered by the wiretapping laws````
Utter rubbish.
Course it matters. If I sat here and recorded my next door neighbors phone calls, it's not illegal. What is illegal is if I turned those tapes over for public consumption either through the sale of such tapes, or given to the national or local media for playback, or blabbed around the rest of the neighborhood what I overheard "last night on my phone".
Go ahead, plug a computer into your neighbor's VOIP phone line and start recording everything he says. Don't listen, just record. Then turn yourself in and see whether you get prosecuted under the federal wiretapping laws.
You're assuming the neighbor even HAS a VOIP line to begin with. You'll also be the fool who turned yourself in. There's a difference between government officials wiretapping and private citizens wiretapping. You're just an idiot with a computer.