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.
Same referenced law:
"(1) Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter any person who - (a) intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept, or procures any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, oral, or electronic communication; ... shall be punished as provided..."Actual disclosure is in subparagraphs after (a). Interception alone is illegal. I hope for your sake you haven't already done that.
You're assuming the neighbor even HAS a VOIP line to begin with. You'll also be the fool who turned yourself in.
You're trying to get away from the point. I used VOIP for those people who say the technology's changed. I don't care if you sniff it out of the air or attach a splitter to his POTS line, it's still illegal.
There's a difference between government officials wiretapping and private citizens wiretapping.
No there isn't. They're both illegal, except for the part about "Except as otherwise specifically provided," which references provisions that allow legal government interception of communications under certain circumstances.