A legal dispute has emerged between Israel Railways and the developers of the open-source 'Better Rail' application. According to a report by the ice website, the railway company sent a warning letter prior to filing a lawsuit, demanding that the app cease its activities involving the company's servers. The government-owned giant alleges that the developers infringed upon its intellectual property and performed actions categorized as hacking into its databases. Israel Railways claims that these actions overloaded its servers, leading to crashes and financial losses. Furthermore, it alleged that the developers profit commercially from displaying schedules, a claim the developers deny entirely.
Represented by Adv. Guy Zomer, the developers refute the allegations. They state the project is a non-profit social initiative that operates at a persistent financial loss. Regarding data access, the developers emphasize that railway information was retrieved in a standard, accessible manner without bypassing passwords or security measures. They also argue that the load created by their approximately 1,000 daily users is negligible compared to the traffic on the official Israel Railways app.
The core dispute involves the railway's demand that the app stop pulling data directly from its servers and instead rely on the Ministry of Transport’s government database. The developers argue that the Ministry’s database contains significant inaccuracies, particularly regarding cancellations or real-time platform updates, which undermines their ability to provide reliable service. Despite their stance, faced with the legal threat and unsuccessful communication attempts, the developers have complied for now, launching a new version based solely on Ministry of Transport data. They have added a user warning regarding potential information display disruptions due to the switch. This incident occurs amid broader legal proceedings between Israel Railways and government officials, including a High Court petition against Minister Miri Regev and Minister Dudi Amsalem regarding the appointment of the company's board. As of now, the conflict reflects the tension between public data transparency and the protection of technological resources belonging to state entities.