Electricity company to provide internet services

Israel's Electricity authority, has issued the Israeli Electricity Corporation (IEC) a permit to engage in communications and in particular provide Internet infrastructure. The permit is subject to separating the communication business from the day-to-day electricity activities of IEC, and forming a separate company that IEC may hold only 49% of its shares. This was noted to be important due to ...

Monitoring employees email severely restricted

In a 91-page opinion the National Labour Court recently laid down a clear set of rules regarding an employer's right to monitor its employees' email messages and other employee uses of workplace IT systems.(1) The rules impose severe restrictions on employers' rights, subsequently calling for employers to consider modification and reform of their employee privacy policies.

Facts

The case ...

Israel prepares for cyber attack

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced yesterday the establishment of a new national governmental body which will co-ordinate and manage Israel's defense and development needs in the information security field and the ongoing cyber war. Netanyahu stated that over the next few years hundreds of millions of Shekels (the Israeli currency) will be allocated to the establishment and running of ...

Israel Antitrust Authority joins fight against piracy

The Israel Antitrust Authority (IAA) has cleared the way for a group of prominent video content publishers and distributors to join forces in fighting online piracy. IAA issued a decision according to which such companies can establish a joint venture to handle the campaign against Internet piracy and enforce their intellectual property rights. Without IAA's permit, their joint operation might ...

Red Hat fails to protect its trademark in Court

The Tel-Aviv District Court (Judge Shoshana Almagor) has rejected a Red Hat lawsuit filed to protect its well-known Fedora trademark. The defendants, Start Commercial Ltd. and its director, deal with IT and data protection. According to Red Hat, they post in their blog and website, logos that closely resemble Red Hat's registered trademark. The court did not find conclusive similarity ...

Class actions against Sony for PSN hacking

Two class action claims against Sony and its Israeli distributor, Isfar, were submitted to the District court in Tel-Aviv, Israel, over the recent hacking into the PlayStation Network (PSN). It is reported that approximately 70 million user's personal details were exposed - including names, addresses, emails, user names, passwords and possibly credit card details as well as information regarding online ...

Developers of gaming website convicted

In a first of a kind decision, the Magistrate Court in Rishon Le-zion, convicted two computer personell who provided technical support to a gambling website. The two were convicted based on their own admissions and as part of a plea bargain, for assisting in the running of lotteries and gambling (a crime under section 225 of the Israeli Criminal Code). ...