Hacker News Reader

No. That's the whole point. The defense can subpoena the video but the law would prevent the company from complying with the subpoena. The defense and DA subpoena power is the same. Thus, if the DA can't get it with a subpoena, neither can the defense.

View on HN

So why not issue the subpoena directly to the account holder?

If you know the video is available on their Facebook account, then you know they have access to it.

My apologies for the remark about a lawyer clearing it up, I've deleted it from the above comment.

See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075110

In short, you can do that. But in real life, you typically won't get the data. That's why police and prosecutor bust down your door instead of mailing you a subpoena asking you to bring incriminating evidence to the police station.

Everyone in the world knows about backups except for lawyers?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com