But Apple has nothing to take down, no webpage or PDF document to take offline. This canary would work by not including the current language in the next report,

But Apple has nothing to take down, no webpage or PDF document to take offline. This canary would work by not including the current language in the next report, not altering the current one. To me (also not a lawyer) that seems quite different from taking down an existing notice. It’s not as clear as an explicit sign (in whatever form) being taken down. The interpretation is much more difficult and vague (also to observers like us who would be the target audience for such a canary): Did they just forget to include this language this year or did they actually receive a request? It also requires actively doing something (including the language in the new report) instead of doing nothing (not taking down the sign). This is very vague as you can see by the many people here doubting that this is a canary at all. If it is indeed one this might afford it legality.