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A comment on Apple vs. The F.B.I.: How the Case Could Play Out. Parent comment

Re:Apple vs. The F.B.I.: How the Case Could Play Out by JoshTriplett on Sunday March 20, 2016 @03:18PM (#11324218)
That was not at all my point. I'm saying that you should be able to reason naturally from "individuals have rights" to "groups of individuals have rights", without encountering some massive disconnect when the group of individuals happens to have formed a company.

If code is speech, and compelling the development and signing of code is compelled speech and thus prohibited, then it shouldn't matter whether the legal entity charged with the development and signing of that code is a company or an individual. It's wrong to compel an individual developer to develop and sign a backdoored version of a program they personally wrote and personally hold the signing keys for, and therefore it's wrong to compel a company to develop and sign a backdoored version of a program they collectively wrote and collectively hold the signing keys for.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Apple vs. The F.B.I.: How the Case Could Play Out by wlesieutre on Sunday March 20, 2016 @03:22PM (#11324230)
To make an analogy with another part of the first amendment:

It's like the government saying "Look, individually you Catholics are fine. Believe what you want. But as a group we're going to need your church to collectively renounce the Pope."

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