Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.

I was just watching this on discovery or history channel, basically about how Steve Jobs STOLE the GUI (Graphical User Interface) from XEROX, then Bill Gates STOLE the idea of the GUI from Apple/Macintosh.

Common knowledge to most of us who grew up with the Atari 2600, then the Commedore 64, then dos, then apple IIe, then, well you get the picture if you are of age.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on copying compared to stealing...? My thoughts on copying is that you are too lazy to re-write the stuff on your own, just trying to copy/paste does no good, however, stealing an idea, making it your own by implementing a certain unique 'twist' that makes the idea revolutionary, well, that's what genius is made of.

What's your opinions?

You have to learn of the idea from somewhere to begin with... stuff doesn't just pop into ones head of something that person knows nothing about. How I think it works is a good idea is heard or seen, then the person that is thinking about it thinks of a way to optimize it or make it better by adding something that the product doesn't have or do, based on what they already know and connecting those two ideas together.

if i may ask, just for clarification. you said jobs stole the actually stole the technology of the gui or the idea of the technology?

affiliate_niche_monster said:

I was just watching this on discovery or history channel, basically about how Steve Jobs STOLE the GUI (Graphical User Interface) from XEROX, then Bill Gates STOLE the idea of the GUI from Apple/Macintosh.
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What's your opinions?

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