I'm with Hodgeman here. What needed a multi-layered tin foil hat yesteryear only needs a quick spurt of tinfoil spray-on today. We've got organizations that do everything from threats to blackmail to bribery to acheive their goals - and they somehow continue even when their actions are judged unconstituational. They're above the law in every way.

If the phone's security has indeed been bypassed, that's cause for alarm already. If it's not already "in the wild" it will be shortly.

The NSA is able to do things that would be illegal for the FBI to do. Perhaps they already can decrypt the phone, while the FBI can't.

Considering IP Box could unlock the screen (which is what they asked in the assist order) for £200 in less than 5 days, I'd say they can.

i don't know if this was already mentioned. it's been a while.

However:

You know its true :D

The fact that they want data from a dead person kind of ruins the joke, though :(

Yeah, the "dead" part is kind of the problem here, otherwise they'd have done that long ago already.

Yeah, the "dead" part is kind of the problem here, otherwise they'd have done that long ago already.

The government would just protect them with a 'National Security' excuse and prevent them from getting sued. Otherwise, Apple should be able to sue them.

If the 3rd party reverse-engineers Apple’s technology, couldn’t Apple sue them and force a cease-and-desist?

That assumes the justice department releases the identity of the 3rd party, no?

I don't believe there is a way to serve a cease-and-desist order to an unknown 3rd party...

If the 3rd party reverse-engineers Apple’s technology, couldn’t Apple sue them and force a cease-and-desist?

That assumes the justice department releases the identity of the 3rd party, no?

I don't believe there is a way to serve a cease-and-desist order to an unknown 3rd party...

RIAA has sued civilians for copyright infringement with "john doe" as the lawsuit target when trying to force ISP to reveal who was using those IP addresses.

Microsoft has sued "john does" many times as well (including john doe small businesses, for pirating MS Windows or MS Office).

Basically, if Apple has evidence of patent violations, they could sue the "john doe" by including the FBI in the lawsuit for protecting the john doe, hoping a judge will force the FBI to give up 3rd party. Whether Apple'd win that lawsuit, I don't have a clue, but it's yet another shot Apple could fire in their broadside if Apple desired to not let the FBI drop the matter.

If the 3rd party reverse-engineers Apple’s technology, couldn’t Apple sue them and force a cease-and-desist?

Depends on whether it was clean-room reverse-engineered, and whether any patents are actually being infringed.

Basically, if Apple has evidence of patent violations, they could sue the "john doe" by including the FBI in the lawsuit for protecting the john doe, hoping a judge will force the FBI to give up 3rd party. Whether Apple'd win that lawsuit, I don't have a clue, but it's yet another shot Apple could fire in their broadside if Apple desired to not let the FBI drop the matter.

If Apple actually sued over that, this would be some seriously hilarious alice-in-wonderland stuff.