[Cryptography] Apple's suzerainty problem

[Henry Baker]

FYI --  Good job, DoJ; "suzerainty" scores 22 Scrabble points!  I guess those >700 SAT English scores are worth something, after all!  Those of us with >700 math scores are in abject awe!

https://cryptome.org/2016/03/usg-apple-149.pdf

"Apple intentionally and for commercial advantage retains exclusive control over the software that can be used on iPhones, giving it monopoly-like control over the means of distributing software to the phones.  Apple does so by:

(1) firmly controlling iPhones’ operating systems and first-party software;

(2) carefully managing and vetting third-party software before authenticating it for use on iPhones; and

(3) continually receiving information from devices running its licensed software and its proprietary services, and retaining continued access to data from those devices about how its customers are using them.

Having established *suzerainty* over its users’ phones—and control over the precise features of the phones necessary for unlocking them—Apple cannot now pretend to be a bystander, watching this investigation from afar."

DoJ brief page 14
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I would love to think that Dan Geer's suggestion re open source software minimizing liability.

However, I'm not so sure that an open source developer like Ubuntu would fare any better if it had developed the software in question.  In fact, Apple may well be one of the few companies with the financial resources to really fight the govt on this issue.