Reply to post: Re: The end of Apple

Apple engineers rebel, refuse to work on iOS amid FBI iPhone battle

bazza Silver badge

Re: The end of Apple

@Doctor Syntax,

"No it wouldn't. The greater part of the burden would be the loss of reputation, a point the OP made & which you've ignored."

Well, to pay attention to that aspect of the OP's point, it will still be difficult for Apple to sustain such an argument. They would be arguing, to a Judge no less, that assisting a criminal investigation will do significant damage to their commercial outlook.

I can't think of a less likely person to win over with such an argument as a Judge. They very much are Law and Order personified and Apple's argument would be close to a personal insult against the Judge. That's asking for a rapid finding in favour of the FBI and a strong rebuke from the Judge.

Even if a Judge were to think about it twice, they would set the (dubious) projections of Apple's commercial losses in the US against the minimal impact this will have on their Global reputation. Assisting the Police With Their Enquiries is a social expectation in most other democratic countries. Apple's reputation would be damaged if they didn't comply with a similar request in the UK for instance. And the Judge would find that, globally speaking, Apple's business would hardly notice.

And even if the Judge did acknowledge that maybe Apple would lose a few sales in the USA they would likely conclude their Order would also apply equally to Apple's rivals (Android, etc). Relative to the market Apple would suffer no impairment whatsoever.

The FBI have been pretty clever with this one, even if they are making fools of themselves with MS.

This is all part of what happens when a company finds that locking out Law Enforcement agencies means that they're taking on the role themselves. Policing of content has to happen for the protection of innocents, and if the cops aren't allowed to do it, the company probably will have to.

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