Understand that laws vary State to State, Country to Country. Understand that to be convicted of copyright infringement the prosecuting attorney, if one is prosecuted (big if), must demonstrate intent for financial gain of the individual recording and/or selling the recording(s). But what about those people that do not sell their recordings which would be... most tapers.
When you purchase a ticket for a concert you enter into a contractual obligation via the ticket: there are rules associated with the ticket and you must follow such rules if not you may be ejected. Simple stuff. If you tape a concert with microphones you are recording the ambience, if you will, of the room. If someone catches you and audio taping was not allowed you have thus violated the terms of the ticket and can by all rights be ejected from the venue. A good friend of mine is a lawyer who has given me guidance on several aspects of this but laws again vary State to State. I am curious about how this translates throughout the rest of North America and potentially the rest of the world? I have been taping on various levels since 2000 with several failed attempts dating back to 1998. Since then, have close to a thousand shows under my taping belt and have been very curious about this issue.
I have been caught taping at: GWAR in 2002 (kicked me out, I gave them my MD), Tool in 6/29/2007 (snuck back in afterwards, different story) and in 2011 a 'tool of a taper' contacted the venue at a Puscifer show and they ended up calling the cops on me which sucked but I still taped everything I wanted to.
What about tapers who pick up radio frequency (RF) and/or IEM recordings? Does this violate wiretapping laws similar to recording a private cell phone conversation? Hard to determine, seems unclear, as far as we can tell there is not one tested case on the books - anywhere. If you record a private conversation in certain States that is not ok, in other States it is fine based. One argument is that if one is broadcasting RF in an enclosed space/property and someone records that frequency *outside* of that space within the legal RF spectrum (i.e.: 470-688) there is no law that does not permit that - like if you parked just close enough to the venue to pick up frequency. (If you recorded that inside the venue you would be subject to the terms of the ticket).
For those that actually know and can cite sources of information, not opinion and conjecture, any thoughts?