You&#x27;re conflating very different scopes of &quot;capability&quot; and responsibility.<p>I&#x27;ll quote the DoJ&#x27;s legal brief on how Apple is not &quot;far removed&quot; from this phone owned by a 3rd party:<p>&quot;... the government is seeking to use capabilities that <i>Apple has purposefully retained</i> in a situation where the former user of the phone is dead ...&quot;<p>&quot;... iPhones will only run software <i>cryptographically signed by Apple</i> ... Just because Apple has sold the phone to a customer and that customer has created a passcode does not mean that the close software connection ceases to exist; <i>Apple has designed the phone and software updates so that Apple&#x27;s continued involvement and connection is required.</i>&quot;<p>&quot;More generally, the burden associated with compliance with legal process is measured based on the direct costs of compliance, <i>not on other more general considerations about reputations or the ramifications of compliance</i>&quot;.