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Viewing pedophilic content to be a criminal offense in Israel

The Israeli Ministry of Justice recently published a memorandum of bill to amend the Israeli Penal Code to prohibit viewing pedophilic content via the Internet. The Penal Code presently prohibits only the possession and publication of such content. The memorandum of bill is initially released for public comments, prior to submitting it for legislation in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. ...

Israeli Supreme Court: circumvention of copyright protection is not prohibited

In a recent notable case, the Israeli Supreme Court held that the sale of devices that circumvent technological measures which control the access to copyright protected works, neither constitutes copyright infringement in itself nor contributes to an infringement (CA 5097/11 Telran Communications (1986) Ltd. v. Charlton Ltd., in Hebrew).

The two litigants appealed the judgment of the Tel ...

National Library of Israel to launch archive of Israeli web

The National Library of Israel recently began a project, dubbed “ArchiNet”, that aims to create an archive of all Israeli websites ending in the suffix (country code Top Level Domain - ccTLD) .il. The purpose of ArchiNet is to document the Israeli and Jewish heritage on the web, and to allow for future historical research regarding the Israeli webspace. Although the web pages included in the ...

Israeli Judiciary combats defamatory posts aimed at judges

The Court Administration of the Israeli Judiciary recently approached the State Attorney’s office and the Israeli Ministry of Justice, requesting they examine the legal measures available in the struggle against slanderous and belligerent online posts and publications aimed at judges. These publications often appear in personal blogs, forums and YouTube clips. According to the Court Administration, this has recently become ...

An Israeli Innovation: Covert Data Retrieval from Smartphones

NSO Group Technologies, an Israeli company founded by a group of alumni of the Israeli Defense Forces' 8200 division, one of the military's elite intelligence units, has developed a tool that can covertly and remotely retrieve all of the information stored on smartphones. The product, named “Pegasus”, is currently being marketed to law enforcement authorities around the world, with the ...

Israeli Tax Authority: Bitcoin profits must be reported and taxed

The virtual currency Bitcoin introduces considerable difficulties for authorities in Israel and around the world, due to its unique characteristics: no country or central bank is responsible for its issuance, its exchange rate is extremely fluctuant, it’s not based on any known economic model, and it can be traded anonymously. Advocate Paul Landes, The head of the Israel Money Laundering ...

Former Israeli privacy commissioner: 'the national biometric database is prone to security threats'

In December 2009, the Israeli parliament (the 'Knesset') enacted the Biometric Identifiers and Biometric Data Inclusion in Identification Documents and in a Database Act (the "Biometric Act"; see our detailed article). The Biometric Act's primary purpose was to tackle large-scale loss and theft of identification cards and passports, later used by criminals and terrorists. This past July, the Israeli ...

Israeli Sues Facebook for Banning Him from the Social Network

An Israeli Facebook user, Mr. Omri Weil, recently filed suit with the District Court of Jerusalem against the social network site. In his suit, Mr. Weil seeks to prohibit the site from deleting content that he previously uploaded, and from barring his use of the site, without substantiation and without letting him voice his objections. In addition, Weil's lawsuit requests ...
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