[Dr. Sivana]

I think a lot of apprehension here is that this is Obama’s government. If this were Bush, or even more so Reagan, I think there would be a lot more leeway granted.

No dice. These issues have been up since the beginning, and conseravtives in IT NEVER liked the government having the keys.

Whether it was strong encryption classified as a munition, Intel 80486 chips with unique IDs, carnivore, we were against it without regard for the the occupant of the White House.

Only exception I can think of is some hardcoded output on paper from high end color laser printers to prevent counterfeiting. Most of us found the restriction/security ratio acceptable for that.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This is not government having the keys, this is Apple using its own proprietary knowledge.

[frog in a pot]

...conseravtives in IT NEVER liked the government having the keys.

From a proprietary interest standpoint, one would think the law supports the view you describe.

Do you know whether Apple has argued it will not disclose trade secrets but will give the USG the information it requests pursuant to a court order, if that information is available?

A side issue may be that if the hardware is manufactured in China and it has the software (undoubtedly)...those clever fella's already have the keys.