[DiogenesLamp]

All that the next wave of computer-illiterate, corruptible magistrate judges would interpret this to be that Apple was compelled to help the FBI crack their iphones. Regardless of how much or how little this particular request works, it would seem to set a legal precedent and open the legal precedent floodgates to compelling Apple, Samsung and anyone else to write OSs with convenient backdoor keys.

That is a non sequitur. Apple already manufactures phones for which the suggested methods will not work. Unless you are going to argue that the courts will make the manufacture of unbreakable phones illegal, your argument does not have merit.

*THIS* phone in question is breakable. Those using the A7 processor (with the hardware secure enclave) probably cannot be gimicked in this way, and even if they can, i'm sure Apple is working to patch this vulnerability in future iterations.

So even accepting at face value the worst of the propaganda that Apple has been cranking out, just how much value would there be in old keys to an increasingly obsolete system? (And *THAT* is assuming the "FBIOS" ever gets in government hands, which it won't unless Apple does something idiotic.)

[Cyberman]

*THAT* is assuming the "FBIOS" ever gets in government hands, which it won't unless Apple does something idiotic.

That's the point -- they are avoiding the idiotic step of creating it in the first place.