Source: https://www.rcfp.org/reporters-recording-guide/rhode-island/
Timestamp: 2020-07-07 19:45:19
Document Index: 271127930

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 12', '§ 11', '§ 11', '§ 12', '§ 11', '§ 11']

The consent of at least one party to a conversation is required to record “any oral communication uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that the communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying that expectation.” R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-35-21, 12-5.1-1. Thus, consent is not required to record conversations in public where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.
The consent of at least one party to any telephone call is required to record it. R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-35-21. And because the provision of the law dealing with wireless communications applies to “any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature,” consent likewise is required to disclose the contents of text messages sent between wireless devices. R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-5.1-1.
It is a crime to photograph or record the “intimate areas” of a person in a place where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, to disclose any images obtained by these means, or to “look into” (using an imaging device) and record images of the interior of an occupied dwelling “for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification or stimulation”. R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-64-2. The law, however, does not criminalize the use of recording devices for other purposes in areas to which the public has access or there is no reasonable expectation of privacy (e.g., filming conversations on public streets or in a hotel lobby).
One who illegally records an in-person or electronic conversation faces a maximum of five years’ imprisonment. R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-35-21.
Anyone whose telephone, electronic or oral conversation has been recorded or disclosed in violation of the law can bring a civil suit to recover the greater of actual damages, $100 a day for each day of the violation, or $1,000, and can also recover punitive damages and attorney’s fees and costs. R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-5.1-13.
One who discloses the contents of a telephone, electronic or oral conversation obtained through illegal recording faces a maximum of five years’ imprisonment. R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-35-21. However, an in-person, telephone or electronic conversation may be disclosed if its contents (defined as the identities of the parties or the existence, substance, or meaning of the conversation) have become common knowledge or public information. R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-35-21, 12-5.1-1.