Recording VoIP Calls: Is it Legal?

I was on an interview the other day and began thinking about how nice it would have been to record the rather long-winded engineer on the other end of the line. This got me thinking: are you allowed to record your VoIP calls without asking for permission first? Of course not, you say. After all a VoIP call is a telephone call (OK, half a telephone call, but you get the point), right? And we all know that the law requires parties to ask for permission before they record calls.

Not so fast. A recent ruling once again in an appeals court in Nebraska once again reaffirmed that the VoIP services, such as Vonage, are not telecos. As such, they are not responsible for taxes such as the Universal Service Fund (USF).  The ruling is hardly unique. A few years ago, a Minnesota appeals came to the same conclusion.

So if Vonage is not a telco then a Vonage call is not a phone call. It's more like a spoken IM chat. So is recording a Vonage call without the permission of the other participant legal? Let me know what you think.