§ 123.001.Definitions

Two definitions, and the exclusions in the second are what keep the chapter workable.

"Communication" means speech uttered by a person or information including speech that is transmitted in whole or in part with the aid of a wire or cable.

Two things are covered: spoken words, and transmitted information. The first limb reaches a conversation in a room with no technology involved; the second reaches anything carried over a wire.

"Interception" means the aural acquisition of the contents of a communication through the use of an interception device that is made without the consent of a party to the communication.

"Aural" confines the chapter to listening. Acquiring the contents by reading — intercepting text rather than sound — is outside this definition.

"Without the consent of a party" is the element that decides most disputes. Texas is a one-party consent jurisdiction: a participant may record their own conversation, because a party consented.

Four exclusions follow, each describing ordinary use of ordinary equipment. A telephone or telegraph instrument, facility or equipment; a hearing aid designed to correct subnormal hearing to not better than normal; a radio, television, or other wireless receiver; and a cable system relaying a public wireless broadcast from a common antenna to a receiver.

The hearing aid exclusion is precisely drawn. A device correcting hearing to normal is excluded; one amplifying beyond normal is not, which is what separates an aid from a listening device.

"Ordinary use" governs all four. A telephone used as a telephone is excluded; one modified to monitor another line is not.