As Apple moves to take on the US Federal Government, big investors are dumping Apple stock.
In a nutshell the US Government has demanded that Apple unlocks the iPhone of a dead terrorist so that they can get to information on the device that is password protected.
Apple has said No.
They argue “You can’t make us give you what we don’t have”.
The core of Apple’s legal argument against U.S. investigators is that the company can’t be compelled to create a key to unlock the encryption of its devices.
The U.S. says it just wants a quick-fix access to a single locked device in the wake of an attack in California.
Apple has a powerful case, lawyers and academics said.
Bloomberg claims that the only law that explicitly permits a court to order a design change is the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which has been applied to telecommunications carriers but never to the new generation of technology companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft.
Besides, previous requests by government to unlock iPhones have related to models with older operating systems that didn’t automatically encrypt information and could be broken into on an individual basis; this order forces Apple to create a new technology that the phone would read as a legitimate Apple function.
Instead, the company is “being forced to create a weakness in their system,” setting a dangerous precedent, he said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook in a blog post Tuesday framed it as a “chilling attack” on civil liberties. The company may also make arguments on First Amendment grounds, given that courts have held that computer code qualifies as speech, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The confrontation dramatically escalates the battle between the tech industry and the government over how much companies should cooperate in the fight against terrorism and will help spell out what the government can and can’t make private industry do.
Other tech companies are likely to join Apple in its fight.
“What they’re asking for is for Apple to create an update” that would allow the government to disable a password limit, he said. While the law may allow a court to compel compliance with the search warrant, as the Supreme Court previously ruled, it cannot “compel a manufacturer to write new code,” Cook said.
Apple is fighting the case vigorously, Cook he added.
Apple Stock Dumped
As Apple was taking on the US government, investor Carl Icahn who 12 months ago was praising Apple was dumping a billion dollars’ worth of stock.
During the last quarter he has 7 million Apple worth about $1 Billion at recent prices.
That’s only 13% of Icahn’s prior stake, he still owns more than $4.4 billion in the iPhone maker.
Apple stock has been hammered recently as growth in the iPhone business slowed. Google even briefly passed it as the world’s most valuable company. Even after selling, Icahn still has plenty invested in the Company.
