In a wide-ranging show of solidarity, dozens of Apple's tech industry competitors and contemporaries filed amicus briefs today in support of the company’s stand against the FBI. In one instance, heavyweights including Google, Microsoft, and Facebook set aside their corporate rivalries to file jointly. Twitter, Airbnb, Ebay, Reddit, and a half dozen other Internet luminaries joined forces to file another brief.
The briefs, which argue that Apple should not be compelled to create software to help the FBI break into an iPhone that had been in possession of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, are meant to bolster the Cupertino company’s legal case. Intel and AT&T---yes, the same AT&T that had a secret spying pact with the NSA---filed their briefs solo. The ACLU, Access Now, and the Wickr Foundation, and a group of security experts have lent their support as well, with more companies, experts, and institutions expected to join in by the end of the Thursday deadline set by the case's judge Sheri Pym.
While this seems like a natural cause for the technology industry to rally behind, many tech leaders were initially slow to express support for Apple in the matter. As the New York Times reports, several companies also hesitated to support Apple publicly. Some expressed concern over whether this was the right fight to pick, while others worried about public perception.
Those concerns appear to have been allayed, at least on the part of the companies who filed Thursday. Their briefs in support of Apple are unequivocal, and use language as forceful as the company’s own.
Apple's all-star Internet friends went aggressively after the government's interpretation of the All Writs Act of 1789, which it's using to justify its order to compel Apple to help hack the iPhone:
While pointing out that applying the AWA here would give law enforcement boundless authority:
And could have equally limitless repercussions:
The most impactful brief came from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Amazon, who were joined by 10 other prominent technology companies.
They made clear just how outdated the All Writs Act of 1789 is:
And that the 1977 United States v. New York Telephone case the FBI has cited as precedent for the government to compel companies to give technical assistance isn't much better:
If anything, they point out, precedent as recent as 2014 says that the law should evolve along with technology:
Besides which, opening a cell phone in 2016 is nothing like opening someone's safe, or even searching their home, as the FBI has implied:
They also make the case that Congress, not the courts, should decide, as it has over the last few decades with laws like the Wiretap Act, FISA, and most recently CALEA, which regulates technological surveillance:
And they put into perspective the burden companies---and their employees---would have to bear:
While reminding the court that code is legally considered speech:
Apple and the FBI will return to court on March 22. Judge Pym has no shortage of reading material with which to keep herself occupied in the meantime.