"The web has been alight these past few weeks with the details of the Apple v. Samsung lawsuit. It's been a unique opportunity to peer behind the curtain of how these two companies operate, as the trial seeks to answer the question: did Samsung copy Apple? But there's actually another question that I think is much more interesting to the future of innovation in the technology industry: regardless of whether the courts say that Samsung copied Apple or not, would we all be better off if we allowed - even encouraged - companies to copy one another?" This is very relevant.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Actually the note in Windows 95 is different, whereas it is the same on the Samsung devices as it is on Apple devices. In the Windows 95 icon, the two notes with a beam are moving downward, in the others, the notes are moving up the scale. Yes, it is close, but at least it is different -- especially if you pay attention to details. Likewise, the location of the note was on the top right in Windows; in older iTunes icons and the Samsung icons derived from them, it starts on the bottom right. In some cases, Samsung uses the same purple as the iTunes Store icon, in others it uses a similar blue to the old iTunes desktop icon. In either case, it could have even varied its choices more by picking a different shade of purple or blue (or even, sticking to red as Samsung has done in some other variants).
(Notably, Apple used an even more distinctly different musical note in early iTunes releases, though Microsoft had deemphasized the CD Player in favor of Windows Media Player already by that point. It wasn't until CD Player was all but forgotten that Apple switched to its familiar two note icon.)
Member since:2005-07-06
Even more ridiculous mental acrobatics ...you point out many variants that are different as if that proved malice - do you really think there are that many variants of doing it, if somebody constantly changes them?
Ultimately, it's about iconography that's familiar to people, a kind of universal language - of course many variants will be close (do you also expect each place to have very different road signs? ...you know, identical could be "infringing", somebody designs them, their details). Understand it's like mouse pointers by now, which are also very similar in their depictions of common basic idea/functionality.
Edited 2012-08-28 00:07 UTC
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OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
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Member since:
2005-07-06
that particular arrangement is a pure ripoff of the cd-player icon in win 95