bkirch

1) "GOOD ARTISTS COPY, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL"- Picasso

      -Most often done by... Jonathan Ive 

See examples here... http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/site_furnitur...

2) Has anyone visited LayerVault's site?

Does anyone think that they invented all of the styling, color schemes, magnifying effects, icon styling out of thin air?

Anyone seen google do something similar? (looks waaaaay better than LV old site BTW)

3) If you wanted to shame someone, the best way to do so would have been a blog post...

See OXO v.s. Quirky http://goo.gl/Zccse

4) It's impossible for an idea to be truly unique/novel. They are always tangents/leaps based on a previous discoveries or insight.