Comment by firecall
1 day ago
Also, I wondered if by complying with British law that they may somehow be breaking laws of another country?
Hypothetically, if Apple just provide a back door to the data they have on US Senators for instance, then providing that information may be considered treason by the US.
That's a totally made up example, and I have no idea, but it seems like it's possibly an issue.
Which is all about the issues around data sovereignty I suppose!
That would not be treason, by a long shot.
Treason is the only crime defined in the constitution, and it is quite a high bar.
The king is a strict constitutionalist, who may disagree with you/ Pray he doesn’t.
> Treason is the only crime defined in the constitution, and it is quite a high bar.
Well, it's defined, or bounded above, in the constitution. It's not exactly a high bar:
> Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
So, if you happened to know Nicolas Maduro, thought he was looking stressed, and bought him some food, that would qualify as treason. There's no requirement that you act against the interests of the United States. The constitution will stop you from being prosecuted for treason for sleeping with Melania Trump. It won't stop you from being prosecuted for treason for completely spurious reasons.
Treason is a very heavy charge and as far as I know it applies more to individuals. Can a company be prosecuted for treason? I guess it depends on the country and I don't know US law well (never even visited there)
But I'm sure local laws conflict heavily between countries yes. I'm often wondering how multinationals manage to navigate this maze. This is why we have such a big legal department I guess :) And the company I work for is a pretty honest one, I've never seen any skullduggery going on with eg privacy or media manipulation. In fact employees are urged to report such things and I have to do a course on responsible behaviour yearly. Probably a result of being purely B2B. But anyway I digress, just wanted to say that getting away with stuff does not seem to be the reason for us having a big legal dept.
But just look at the laws of e.g. the EU and Iran. Pretty diametrically opposed on many topics. There's no way to satisfy them both.
I think what helps to make this happen is that most countries don't try to push their laws outside of their jurisdiction. Which the UK is trying to do here.