LinSpire LPhoto and LSongs: bring on the lawsuits!

Sir Joltalot writes "Over at OSNews they're covering the newly-renamed LinSpire's LSongs and LPhoto apps. Take a look at those screenshots, and you'll notice a striking resemblence to Apple's iTunes and iPhoto. Take a look at this flash presentation and you'll see that LPhoto and iPhoto are almost exactly alike. They look like nifty apps, to be sure, but how long will they last? I would have thought LinSpire might have learned from the whole Lindows name fiasco..."

Comments

LSongs/iTunes similarities

[NiKnight3]

• File/Edit/Controls/Visualizer/Advanced menu system
• "Source" title on playlist/library listing on left
• Expandable browsing area
• Column view of browsing
• Checkboxes on playlist
• Play icon in playlist in same position
• "Selected song" caption for album art and same positioning
• Add/shuffle/repeat/album art toggle buttons in same location
• Equalizer/visualizer/eject buttons in same location
• Play controls / now playing / search / browse in same position, only at bottom of screen
• Exact same play position marker

Nope, no similiarities here. Of course, I wonder if...

• Inconsistent interface
• Unintuitive placement of play / search controls

...makes up for it.

The iTunes interface is patented

[zsazsa]

Just because a product emulates a look and feel doesn't mean it's BAD does it? Since when was there a patent on a GUI?

Ever since Apple got US patent number 2002089529 , titled Media Player Interface. Look at the drawings -- that's iTunes. That probably also explains why LSongs has the player controlls at the bottom of the screen.

Apple vs Microsoft (Look N Feel)

[Numeric]

Here's some interesting background into Look and Feel lawsuits. I remember in college having long debates that Windows 95 was a ripoff of Apple's System 7. Apple has "Trash" and MSFT has "Recycle Bin". Apple list their icons on the right and MSFT list them on left...so on and so on.