[teacup50]

This is not a dramatic expansion of the AWA's power. This is exactly what the AWA is meant to do. The few carve-outs of the authority of the AWA go much farther -- that's exactly what CALEA is, for example, and it has been held up by the courts repeatedly.

Your references to the GPL nonsense are a false dichotomy; All we need is ownership rights over the electronics we buy, like we've had -- even on Apple platforms -- for decades.

Supporting Apple now just ensures that when Apple does fall -- whether it's an expansion of CALEA, or espionage, or just a shift in their business priorities -- we may never know about it, and the impact on privacy/security is likely to be much worse.

If Apple loses this battle, there's no real impact to the risk profile. Apple already had the backdoor. The only change is that we're forced to be honest about that backdoor's existence, and start thinking real hard about how to avoid this kind of centralization of power, and its inevitable use, going forward.