Comments on: Jetpack Mockup Clarification & Apology to MetaLab

By: jason

jason — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:00:37 +0000

Did you pay metalab for ripping them off? I mean, you asked for a bid on the job then took the design as your own. I don’t care how it happened I figure you owe them about 4 grand along with your “sincere apology”.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 10:18:13 +0000

You need a license to publish other people’s material, not an ‘attribution’.

Your working knowledge of IP law seems to be almost non-existent, which is pretty worrying.

By: lisandro

lisandro — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:52:15 +0000

Why did we make a big stink?

This really rubbed us the wrong way. There is a big difference between being inspired by a design and outright theft. I’ll admit that a great deal of our work is heavily inspired by other designers. In fact, it would be downright impossible to find a designer whose work isn’t at least somewhat derivative of others. I spent months deconstructing Apple’s aqua buttons when I was first learning Photoshop, and our whole team is constantly scouring inspiration galleries for interesting new interface trends. But something happens when you recreate something on your own: it grows organically. You build your own style and invariably create something new – even if it’s just a minor evolution. When you copy elements outright, you don’t gain anything from the experience. You don’t grow as a designer, you don’t build on the style, and you feel shitty about it. Not to mention the fact that you will undoubtably get busted at some point, and even publicly humiliated.
Says Metalab:http://blog.metalabdesign.com/post/440371465/the-great-mozilla-debacle

By: oVan

oVan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:43:08 +0000

Great – you’ve removed the screenshot.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:07:41 +0000

Totally understandable. If you all at one point considered going with MetaLab then it would make sense that you all would have made mock-ups based on their site.

Duly noted that MetaLab accepted this apology. Why can’t the rest of the tech industry work like this?!

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:18:03 +0000

That’s worse than a politicians apology.

By: dude

dude — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:21:48 +0000

Well put and good for you guys for not playing further into all the hype surrounding this. There was no reason for them to fly off the handle like they did and I would never work with them after how they acted. Good on you for quickly removing the source of all the rage and succinctly smoothing over the whole situation.

By: a

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:21:49 +0000

And once you determine *how* it occurred will you let the salivating masses know?

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:37:42 +0000

Yeah, no kidding? Who is Jim and why is your form so broken?

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:34:24 +0000

Hey me too! I can even see my other fake counterparts comment which awaiting moderation!

Regards,
Fake Jim (2)