MetaLab Accuses Mozilla of Ripping Off UI Elements In Mockups 159
CWmike writes "Canadian interface design firm MetaLab has accused Mozilla of stealing user interface elements for a development tool in the browser maker's Jetpack project, which aims to simplify add-on making. MetaLab leveled the charges on Tuesday when the 11-person firm's founder, Andrew Wilkinson, blogged about the similarities between his company's designs and those posted by Mozilla for FlightDeck, a Jetpack editor. 'What they did was pretty ridiculous,' Wilkinson said on Thursday. 'There's a difference between inspiration versus ripping something off,' he said. 'The measurements of the graphic elements [Mozilla took from us] were the exact same, the very same pixels. When someone takes your images from the server hosting them, that's crossing the line.' Mozilla apologized to MetaLab on Wednesday, saying in a blog post, 'While the design direction being implemented does not utilize these design elements, we inadvertently included the early mockups in our blog post and video announcing the next phase of development for the Jetpack SDK ... We sincerely apologize to MetaLab for incorporating design elements from their web site in our early mockups and for posting them publicly without proper attribution.'" Alexander Limi of the Firefox User Experience Team points out that MetaLab has accepted the apology, too — worth bearing in mind.
Open source, steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Without stealing of ideas, we wouldn't have Open Office which implemented feature-for-feature what Microsoft Office has. Without stealing, we wouldn't have KDE and Gnome with implemented many features from Windows and OS X. How could open source survive without it? :)
Re:Open source, steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
How could open source survive without it? :)
Coming up with your own ideas instead of cloning everyone else's?
Snore (Score:5, Insightful)
Company does something wrong.
Company apologizes.
Accuser accepts apology.
Slow news day?
Re:Open source, steal? (Score:3, Insightful)
Without stealing, we wouldn't have many works of Shakespeare or Bach, both of whom copied liberally from their Italian counterparts. (Of course that was before copyright existed, hence plagiarism of ideas was not only legal, but accepted.)
Re:Snore (Score:3, Insightful)
This was a mockup people (Score:5, Insightful)
Good thing. (Score:3, Insightful)
Under 30, are you? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Under 30, are you? (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess you forgot Harvard Graphics :-)
Re:This was a mockup people (Score:5, Insightful)
So, a company decided to take shortcuts in creating a mockup
No, they showed it to the public. Public demo trumps mockup, and they deserve a bit of flak for this one.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Open source, steal? (Score:4, Insightful)
How could open source survive without it? :)
Coming up with your own ideas instead of cloning everyone else's?
That depends on what your open source project is. If you want to replace a current application with an open source one, coming up with your own ideas of how to implement it won't be the best option. If I wanted my company to replace their versions of Microsoft Word with an open source word processor, I would want the application to reliably and hopefully in a simple way do all that Microsoft Word currently does. There is no point in making a word processor if it's so different and can do all these other things if it can't do the things I need it to do.
Coming up with ideas has nothing to do with open/prop source.
When making something new, to look into a market/niche that isn't being catered for currently, come up with new ideas, do things that no-one has done already. Be creative. When trying to take a market from someone else or to replace a product, copy the functionality features - but even at that point, it would be better to look at how those functions and features might be improved in the process. Giving someone a product that does exactly the same thing won't give them any incentive at all to change. Giving them a product that does the same things, but better/simpler/easier/quicker is when you will have a product worth swapping to.
Re:Open source, steal? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's impossible. You can't live in a vacuum, and EVERYTHING is derivative to one degree or another.
Re:Open source, steal? (Score:3, Insightful)
There's a difference between being derivative and being an attempt at a 1:1 copy.
Re:Open source, steal? (Score:4, Insightful)
The same old tired excuse -- did you even look at the article and linked blog entry? This isn't about stealing of ideas, this is stealing work pixel-for-pixel. That's never OK, and has nothing to do with open source or "artistic inspiration".
reverse the situation (Score:4, Insightful)
yes thats right, slashdot is as bad as fox news.
Re:reverse the situation (Score:3, Insightful)
stop and think of the comments if the situation was reversed.
yes thats right, slashdot is as bad as fox news.
More like people are just people. Our experiences give us bias, and there is nobody who can achieve perfect objectivity in every situation. People here have a propensity to cheer for open source software. Through their own experiences, Fox viewers have a different perspective. It's not bad, it's just life. The alternative would be to throw out all emotion and become as the Vulcans. Yes, we're all biased. Yes, we're all emotional. Yes, we're all hypocrites--especially those of us who pretend to have no bias.
Front page stuff: decent behaviour (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Open source, steal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why reinvent the wheel? If there's a particular design/UI element that's in use, has been updated and refined for decades, and is generally accepted as the easiest or most efficient, or even just the most familiar way to do things, why reinvent it? If you eschew it completely, you're likely to alienate a significant portion of your user base.
Re:Under 30, are you? (Score:3, Insightful)
> My only beef is when people get all high and mighty about ideas being borrowed in the
> other direction. Who cares if Microsoft or Apple take ideas that started in the open
> source world. The end result is an improved user experience for all software.
No one cares about what Microsoft or Apple copies about until they make noises about "freedom to innovate" or start patent trolling.
They get flack for lying and hypocrisy, not theft.