Articles Topics Internet Law Update

The Liability of a Certification Authority Pursuant To the Israeli Electronic Signature Law

On 26th March 2001 the Knesset approved the Electronic Signature Law, 5761-2001 on second and third reading. The Law regulates the evidential status of electronic signatures, lays down the effect of electronic certificates (which confirm that a person has a particular signature verification device - the on-line equivalent of an identity document) and provides how a certification authority, which issues ...

The Unreasonableness of The Israeli Encryption Order (Third Part)

Secrets have special standing in Israeli law. As the Supreme Court has stated: "There are those who view the trade secret as property... and others view it as 'quasi-property' or a proprietary interest... Nevertheless, it would appear that everyone accepts that the trade secret does 'exist' in law and that the law provides means to protect against its exploitation without ...

The Relationship Between Privacy And Software Licences

An Israeli software company that has developed a popular program is currently contending with a complex public relations crisis. The software developed by it is distributed free of charge and in order to produce income the company displays advertising to the program's users. The product has become very successful and the number of users is estimated at many milion around ...

The Unreasonableness of The Israeli Encryption Order (Second Part)

Alongside its traditional military and defence applications, encryption is used in modern communications to encode cellular phone calls; for the security of information sent from Internet browsers to e-commerce sites; the protection of intellectual property in computer files; the management of virtual networks that link remote sites by the Internet; the verification of contracting parties' identities; the security of computer ...

The Unreasonableness of The Israeli Encryption Order

On 16th September 1999 the Clinton Administration announced a new, far more lenient export policy in respect of encryption commodities. After years during which the American security agencies had claimed that the free export of means of encryption would endanger national security and had required encryption programs to leave a "back door" through which they could access the hidden information, ...

Judge Hashin: Internet Surveys Are Not Reliable

The most recent elections for Prime Minister gave The Chairman of the Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Mishal Hashin, more than one opportunity to express his views about the Internet. His central decision, on the connection between the freedom of expression and the Internet, was reviewed at length in this column about two weeks ago. It now transpires that the ...

The Battle for Email

The State Attorney, Edna Arbel, recently (May 2000) laid down policy that email that is not in the possession of an Internet service provider but is likely to pass through its computers in the future, can only be seized, kept and copied after an appropriate order has been obtained by virtue of the Secret Monitoring Law, 5739-1979. Arbel thereby accepted ...

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