VoIP Terms of Service May Surprise You

rabtech writes "If you are thinking of ditching a land-line for a VOIP provider such as Vonage or Net2Phone, you might want to think again. Software "End User license Agreements" have gotten a lot of attention in the past over their onerous and restrictive terms, but who would expect such things from your phone company? The prime example is Vonage, which states among other things that 'If Vonage, in its sole discretion believes that you have violated the above restrictions, Vonage may forward the objectionable material, as well as your communications with Vonage and your personally identifiable information to the appropriate authorities for investigation and prosecution and you hereby consent to such forwarding.'" (Read more below.)

"Don't forget the obligatory 'we can change these terms of service whenever we like and they become effective immediately when posted to our website.' Read for yourself here(1), here(2), and here(3). I won't put up with this kind of thing in my software and I certainly won't put up with it from my phone company!"

Comments

VOIP in Canada

[Archbishop]

Perhaps slightly off-topic here, but are there any VOIP providers doing business in Canada currently? Of the companies I've seen mentioned here on /., only one offers Canadian phone numbers, but still requires a US mailing address.

Also, a company up here wouldn't have to deal with Patriot act laws. But that's a separate rant.

Re:What do you expect??

[tezza]

This is a tad off-topic:

I do support greater parental responsibility, but the fact is, not all children fall under the mother-father parenting model. Perhaps your dad split when you were young, perhaps they died from terminal flatulence. Perhaps your struggling single father, doesn't have time to watch you 24/7 as well as working 4 jobs to try to feed your face.

It is societies responsibility to ensure the safety of children as well as the parents.