Please treat each of these as a seperate but related question:

Is it legal to video tape people in a public environment without their
consent?  Without their knowledge?  Without the camera in plain view? 
Can sound be recorded without consent?  Can video obtained against the
tapee's consent or knowledge be used against him in a court of law?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 28 Jun 2003 17:09 PDT

The way that Google Answers is structured, we can't treat these as
separate questions.  To obtain an answer to each question, you would
need to post each question separately, or raise the price greatly on
this question and hope that one Researcher can find the answer to all
of them.  (I would suggest posting each question separately.)

In addition, each question appears to require more than the average
time and effort associated with a $2.00 question.  Here is a link to
the guidelines about pricing your question:

http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html

I should also emphasize the disclaimer at the bottom of this page,
which basically indicates that Google Answers can provide general
information, but not legal advice, on the issues that you present.

Lastly, if and when you repost each question separately, you should
mention the country (and state or province) to which the question
relates.  Different countries / states might possibly have different
legal standards on these issues.

Remember that laws very from state to state, but this should clarify
some things for you:

"Is it legal to video tape people in a public environment without
their
consent? Without their knowledge? Without the camera in plain view?" 
Sure, but there's not much you can do with that video tape - you
definitely can't broadcast it on television or release it on video.
People are taped all the time via security cameras. I don't know if a
person would have any recourse if you were found to have a
compromising tape of them that you only used for private use (whatever
that might mean).

"Can sound be recorded without consent?" This usually varies from
state to state, and I believe it’s often more protected than a
person’s image on video.

"Can video obtained against the tapee's consent or knowledge and be
used against him in a court of law?" Security cameras come to mind
again, not to mention hidden video that police use for stings. There's
a chance that an inappropriate tape in court could be considered an
infringement on a persons rights.

The point - laws tend to focus on how you USE the video, though you
should heed the disclaimer and get some solid legal advice.

Recording conversations between people, even in a public place, may
violate eavesdropping statutes, which typically include criminal
penalties. Before making any secret recordings of conversations, the
person making the recording should check the governing law to be sure
that the action will not constitute a criminal offense.