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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

The Israeli Bar: attorneys may be compensated in Bitcoin

The Tel Aviv District Ethics Committee of the Israel Bar Association recently ruled that attorneys may collect fees for their services using Bitcoin. The committee’s decision was handed down without regard to the regulatory problems that arise from using Bitcoin, a virtual currency based on an encryption system that allows covert use, without the payer or payee having to expose ...

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 ...

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 ...

Will foreign web companies active in Israel pay VAT?

An attorney representing Israeli companies recently applied to the Israeli Tax Authority, to have the Value Added Tax Law enforced on foreign companies operating in Israel in the field of web advertising, such as Facebook and Google. In his application, Advocate Guy Ophir alleges that the Tax Authority unlawfully exempts foreign companies from their obligation to pay VAT with resepct to transactions ...
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