The fine would probably be pretty hefty and occur on some periodic basis. Yahoo reportedly faced $250,000 daily fines that were set to double weekly back in 20

The fine would probably be pretty hefty and occur on some periodic basis. Yahoo reportedly faced $250,000 daily fines that were set to double weekly back in 2008 [1] Some engineer will do it for a million dollars, just knowing that the next guy after him will be offered the same amount. And Apple will be happy to pay that amount because to disobey a finalized court order is suicide for everyone. A better argument for why this won't work as the DoJ would like is that criminals will just use some other method of encrypting their data. It's as easy as downloading an app. Meanwhile, the rest of us will be using devices whose security is compromised. This leaves the criminals safe, our data more vulnerable to theft, and the DoJ with their hands in the air wondering what happened. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/11/yahoo-nsa-lawsuit-documents-fine-user-data-refusal http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/11/yahoo-nsa-lawsu...