DOJ threatened to seize iOS source code unless Apple complies with court order in FBI case

PO3 Steven Sherrill While I am NEVER for the government interfering in a persons private lives. There is a lawful court order that Apple must follow.

Let's down grade this to us peons. A police officer gets behind you as you go though a yellow light. You believe the light to be yellow. He throws on the blue lights and you refuse to stop because you think the light was yellow. Guess who is going to jail? Why should Apple be any different? Just because they believe they are doing the right thing does not mean they get to choose what the law says. They have the same day in court to argue as me and you.

Now lets upgrade this. Your bank that has your life savings in it has lawful rules they must follow. They decide that those laws are not lawful and they do some crazy things that end up making them broke. You now have nothing. Laws are in place for a reason. There are things you can do to retract those laws if you believe they are not legal, but until then you must follow the law.

SGT William Howell - I understand where you are coming from. The problem with this is twofold. 1) there is no real precedent for this. They have a warrant for one phone. Apple cannot provide them what they want for one phone. They have to hack their entire system. Using your example, it would be like when a specific car say a Prius passes a yellow light, and the police pull over every Prius on the road. They may only be looking for one particular Prius, but they are now in every Prius. The second part of that is that once that key is created, it is not a matter of if, but when hackers will get ahold of it. We already live in a time where infrastructure security in the digital sphere is a 24/7 assault. Going back to the Prius example, while your Prius is pulled over, you get car jacked, and now all your personal property in that Prius is in the hands of thieves.

This is totally a matter of trying to pick up the shit covered stick by the clean end. Cannot be done. No matter what the outcome is, nobody comes out clean. Apple looks like the company that supports terror. The FBI looks like the SS just waiting to invade the American People's privacy. So ultimately whichever side "wins" they both lose.

SGT William Howell - Let's take that analogy a step farther. What happens when that cop tells you to do something you believe to be ethically or morally wrong? Do you do it?

What about the Court? Do you do it?

Because that is what is happening here. The Judge ordered Apple to do something they believed was WRONG. Constitutionally WRONG. Violated the "Big Rules" (4a) which the FBI MUST play by, using a "shady" legal argument, and just happened to get a Judge to buy off on.

Just because a Judge orders you to do something, doesn't mean you do it. The "I was just falling orders" doesn't fly. We established that along time ago. I hate to invoke Godwin's Law, but I think this time is apt.

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nuremberg-trials

PO3 Steven Sherrill Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS Both good and valid points. Let me wrap my IBM (Itty Bitty Mind) around this.