Just as with the desktop Apple copied their interface components from other sources. Others based their work on Apple. Apple in turn based some of their work on those same copiers and others.

The US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Apple many years ago when they lost their case against Microsoft over copyrighting interface elements. The end result was that you just can’t copyright certain things. On the small screens of the phone the same thing applies.

I can tell you with all certainty that the differences between iOS and Android are starkly different. There was little copying, except in some interface elements (because they were obvious) which were some were copied by Apple from other sources.

I always felt something was awry after IE8 came out and have known for a long time that toolbars were nothing more than tracking tools. You ever wonder why these companies want those toolbars on your computer? What, to provide you with some pretty buttons and a box to do searches against their engine? I don’t think so. If you have looked at IE8′s installation where you have Google’s search as the default they’ll try to get you to update it to the one provided by Microsoft. They want this for a reason as well. They want to watch you search Google so they can work out their process. It’s good to hear that this is finally coming to light.

And lets say it was….it must suck to have a copy that is better then the original.