Earkeep
Is Maine a one-party consent state?
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For calls and ordinary in-person conversation, yes, and by an unusual route: a participant is not intercepting at all, because the definition of intercept excludes the sender and the receiver. But a separate privacy statute criminalises using a device inside a private place without consent, and that one is not about who is speaking.
The short answer
Being a participant answers the wiretap statute. It does not answer 17-A M.R.S. § 511, which turns on the place. Maine's definition of a private place is drawn around changing rooms and bathrooms rather than conference rooms, so an ordinary meeting is probably outside it, but the safe course in a closed room is to announce.
The statute
15 M.R.S. § 710 reaches both wire and oral communication, and there is no express party-consent exception in it at all. The one-party result comes from the § 709 definition of "intercept", which excludes the sender, the receiver and a person with prior authority. A participant is therefore not intercepting, rather than being excepted from having intercepted.
Oral communication is defined by an expectation of privacy: speech "uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that such communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying such expectation". RCFP adds that no consent is needed for speech within normal unaided hearing.
17-A M.R.S. § 511 is the separate one. It criminalises installing or using a device inside a "private place" without consent, defined as "a place where one may reasonably expect to be safe from surveillance, including, but not limited to, changing or dressing rooms, bathrooms and similar places". The examples are narrower than Hawaii's equivalent, which is why an ordinary meeting room is probably outside it.
What happens if you get it wrong
§ 710 interception, disclosure and device-possession offences are Class C crimes. RCFP states the maximum as five years and $5,000, which matches Maine's Class C range, though the statute lists classes rather than numbers so treat the figures as RCFP's. Selling or furnishing a device is Class B. Violation of privacy under 17-A § 511 is Class D, reported at under a year and $2,000.
Private right of action under § 711, with damages of "the greater of $100 a day for each day of the violation or actual damages", plus fees and costs. Amounts per RCFP only.
If the other person is in another state
No rule settles which state's law applies to a conversation spanning two of them, several may apply at once, and courts have reached opposite results on comparable facts. If anyone in the meeting is in Maine, the practical answer is to satisfy Maine. The general problem is on the US overview.
What to say
Said before the substance starts, so the consent is prior; asking a question, so an answer is on the record rather than inferred from silence; and offering a way out, which is what makes the answer mean anything.
Before we start: I'm recording and transcribing this meeting so I have accurate notes. It runs on my own laptop and nothing is uploaded. Is everyone okay with that? If anyone would rather I didn't, say so now and I'll turn it off.
Then leave a beat for an answer. Longer and shorter versions are on telling people you're recording.
Where Earkeep sits in this
Earkeep records continuously and announces itself to nobody: no bot in the participant list, no banner on anyone else's screen. Where every participant's agreement is what makes the recording lawful, that means the whole of the obligation sits on you saying something, and the app will not remind you.
What it gives you is somewhere to go when the answer is no. A pause from the live edge releases the microphone and the system audio stream, so your operating system's own recording indicator goes dark in front of the person who asked. A meeting on a connected calendar can be marked never-record, so a standing meeting is decided once. And a stretch of the day, or a saved meeting with its transcript, can be purged: the lines come out of the file on your own disk and nothing is written in their place, with no server copy anywhere. The one caveat is that it is not recoverable either.
None of that makes a recording lawful in Maine. Consent law is about the recording, not about where it is stored, so the fact that transcription runs on your own device and the audio is never written to disk is not an answer to the statute. It is an answer to a different and often more pressing question in the room.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Is Maine a one-party consent state?
For the wiretap statute, yes, though the mechanism is unusual: a participant is outside the definition of intercept rather than excepted from it, because § 709 excludes the sender and the receiver. A separate privacy statute covering private places is the part a one-party label hides.
What is a private place in Maine?
17-A M.R.S. § 511 defines it as a place where one may reasonably expect to be safe from surveillance, and its examples are changing rooms, bathrooms and similar places. That list is narrower than the equivalent in Hawaii or Kansas, so an ordinary conference room is probably outside it.
Do I have to announce a recording in Maine?
Not for the wiretap statute, where being a participant means you are not intercepting. Announcing is still the safe course in a closed room, and it is the only thing that helps if someone on the call is in an all-party state.
Related
- US recording laws, state by state: the federal baseline, the cross-border problem, and all 51 jurisdictions.
- Telling people you're recording: the scripts, and the three ways to stop.
- Private by design: why the audio never leaves your computer.
This page is legal information, not legal advice. It summarises statutes and cases rather than replacing them, and we are not lawyers. If the answer matters, ask someone who can be held to their answer.
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