It’s
Quote Quoting llworking
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Federal law only takes precedence on issues that under the Constitution of the United States that federal law takes precedence. All other issues are reserved for the states and state law takes precedence. Therefore there are lots of things where the feds cannot overrule the states. The feds will often propose legislation and encourage the states to adopt it, but the states are not required to do so.



This is an issue where I am often in disagreement with some of the other posters on these forums. It is my opinion that what is done with any recording is what matters. Therefore I am in agreement with you that if a recording is never used in any way (other than to jog the memory of the person who made the recording) or disclosed in any way that its not a violation of the law.

Other members here feel very strongly that if the recording is made at all its a violation of the law. The bottom line however is that if no disclosure of the recording is ever made, and therefore nobody ever knows about it, someone cannot be prosecuted for it.
It’s not a matter of what other posters feel. It is a matter of law. Not all statutes are concerned with the recording itself but how it is used. In other states the act of recording in contrast to what the law allows is a criminal act in itself.

Maryland does criminalize the act itself as well as criminalizing the disclosure of the recording. Additonally they toss in a law that adds another crime if the unlawful recording is made with malicious intent. That means one can be prosecuted for making the recording and face additional charges for disclosing the recording and even more if the intent for recording the conversation was malicious.