Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Review of Ekiga / DreamTime

I'm currently looking for a VOIP provider so that I can make inexpensive long distance phone calls from my computer. Ekiga is one of several VOIP clients available in Linux. I installed Ekiga, but did not get past the configuration Wizard. At step 5 of 9, I investigated setting up a Call Out service, which is my ultimate goal. Computer-to-computer calls are not very useful to me, because the convenience of telephones just can't be beat.

Ekiga's call-out service uses an outfit called DreamTime, which gives Ekiga's developers a decent ten percent of the take. I was willing at first to take a positive view of Ekiga and of DreamTime. However, to sign up, one has to agree to their Terms and Conditions, which seemed onerous:
"You shall not create, publish, distribute, or permit any written material that makes reference to DreamTime without first submitting such material to DreamTime and receiving its prior written consent..." "DreamTime, at its sole discretion, determines whether you are in violation of the User Agreement..." "Any violation of the User Agreement may result in locking of your user account..." "Any request for a refund will result in a minimum $50 research fee."
All of the above terms and conditions seem mean-spirited, written by a misanthrope. DreamTime is threatening to lock the accounts of any customer that dares complain about their quality of service, which they admit may be unpredictable at times. I think that their terms are of questionable legality. It would be interesting to see whether DreamTime could get away with confiscating the account of a customer that posted a negative review of their service. I think that DreamTime would lose that lawsuit, at least in the United States, based upon my limited understanding of business law. I also think that one of their customers could find recourse with the credit card companies or with Paypal, depending upon their method of payment. I am pleased to have read the Terms and Conditions, because now that I have, I know to uninstall Ekiga and not waste any more time with it. It is not a solution, but a potential problem that I don't need.

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