Hacker News Reader

Comment by karmacondon | Hacker News Reader

I have a question for the lawyers on HN. Why doesn't the judge in the case hold Apple in contempt of court until they modify the OS, in the same way they would hold a reporter in contempt until they revealed a source?

In both cases, you have a third party who is being compelled to assist an investigation against their will. My only guess is that there is a precedent set for reporters, but not for computer programmers.

View on HN

IANAL, that said, at the end of the order, it says

"To the extent that Apple believes that compliance with this Order would be unreasonably burdensome, it may make application to this Court for relief within five business days of receipt of the Order."

Since Apple has presented such an application, they are now supposed to return to court next month to argue their position.

I think that doesn't speak to the expansiveness of Apple's response. It's my understanding that the burden to undertake this effort being excessive is only one of their grounds for argument. They are additionally arguing that it violates free speech principles, and also that the request goes beyond their initial compliance efforts to aid in the investigation to fringing on violating Fifth Amendment principles by asking them to go above and beyond the simple compliance.

To my untrained eyes, they're basically saying that instead of having a key and being asked to turn over the key, and doing so - they're being asked to devote efforts to create an entirely new key that would unlock many or all doors. Which could then be used in many other unrelated "need to open the door" situations.

It's an ex parte order -- meaning, it was issued to the government without anyone from Apple present to argue against it, so instead Apple gets a chance to respond arguing against it after the fact.

I think at best, the judge could hold corporate officers in contempt, not any individual computer programmer or developer. However, given Apple's stance, they would likely respond to the contempt order in a similar way they are now: accrue the fines, don't pay them, appeal as high as it takes to have this ruling overturned.

I'm not a lawyer, at all. But my guess would be that if Apple reached a point in court where the original ruling was overturned, the contempt penalties would be invalidated.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com