The thing no one seems to be discussing here as this topic arises again and again is that the problem being addressed is Apple's problem, not the problem of anyone who purchases an Apple computer. Apple's "solution" is to create a new problem for all Apple purchasers.

The majority of Apple hardware purchasers are probably not engaged in illegal activity. Yet all Apple purchasers are being forced to pay the price for Apple's mistake. Apple's hands are not clean.

No Apple purchaser ever intentionally requested that Apple copy their files to servers in Apple datacenters, or that Apple perform encryption intsead of the user, store and forward the user's personal messages through servers in Apple datacenters. Those were business decisions that Apple made to benefit Apple.

Technology allows, all computer users are quite capable of storing their files on their own portable media, and many are capable of encrypting and then sending messages directly to others, peer-to-peer, without leaving a copy with a third party. Technology allows, Apple has choices. No purchaser ever demanded that device storage capacity be reduced or ports for removable media be removed. Nor did any purchaser ever demand that her message be stored with Apple. Those are choices made by Apple, not users. Users should have choices too. Instead they are corralled into a user-hostile vision of personal computing that props up the world's wealthiest companies who horde money offshore while their domicile country falls into chaotic decline.

As the parent comment states, "One's device ought to be one's property..." Apple has actively and aggressively sought to overcome this basic tenet of common sense. As people online argue about "misinformation" please stop and consider the "lies" that Apple and the companies they compete with are telling the public about what exactly it is they do. Apple has taken Jobs' idea of the "Reality Distortion Field" too far.

Computer users need quality hardware. Apple can design and assemble it and be the best at what they do. Users do not need to be manipulated by a hardware vendor after purchase. Where did that idea come from. The sad fact is the "new" Apple is not competing with other hardware vendors. No other vendor even comes close. Apple has set its sights on competing with "tech" (middleman) companies that do nefarious things and cover up the truth. Apple wants user data after purchase. Why. To compete with "tech" (middleman) companies. Bad decision. Users pay the price.

The easiest way Apple could have fixed this problem with storing illegal files would be to stop storing user files and messages! Be a hardware company. Let purchasers use portable storage or arrange their own "cloud storage" with a more "competent" provider (let another company deal with the inherent flaws of the "cloud" concept^1). Let users discover how to encrypt their own data and use peer-to-peer transmission. Let them use the Apple computer to write programs without needing "permission" from Apple. Apple has only tried to hide these basic capabilities and competencies from the majority of new computer users, strengthening the "Reality Distortion Field".

A long line of bad decisions from a hardware company we once admired. They just keep getting worse. And all for what. Greed. Immense untaxed cash reserves held offshore. Why not be a hardware company and stop trying to compete with "tech" (middleman) company surveillance. Why keep dumbing down and locking down what a former CEO once called a "bicycle for the mind".

1. "Cloud" is a synonym for "someone else's computer." "Cloud storage" is another way of saying "storing files on someone else's computer". Perhaps "Apple" is also a synonym for "someone elses's computer". If Aple can exercise control over a computer after they sell it, how it is not still theirs. Purchasers are just "users", not owners.