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Is this "idea theft" or "inspiration"?

Let's take web design for example. This site says the following:

There is nothing wrong with looking for inspiration on other websites. You can point out elements to your web designer and [notice here] even incorporate them into your design. You just don’t want to copy the elements themselves or the code … Just make sure it doesn’t scroll the same images, and your web designer uses their own code to create the element and doesn’t copy the code from the website you found.

But before that he says that, "Web developers write custom code for one client. Therefore, they own the rights to that design. It does not matter if another site [notice here] copies part or all of your site. If any of the elements of your custom website are reproduced on another site, then you have a case for copyright infringement."

From copyright infringement regardless of copying parts or all of your website to "even incorporating them into your design"

Now, lets say that I liked look and structure of the top part of the notetaking desktop app OneNote. Could i then use the exact same design structure, but not directly copying it, and also switching the color from purple to black, AND using my own software code?

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    It's worth being aware that you can sue pretty much anyone for anything, and that anyone can sue you for anything. Whether or not the case will be won or lost is another matter entirely. So the fact that someone could sue you for copyright infringement is not in-and-of-itself a case for concern.

    As for web design, most design is inspired by other design. Most UI elements consist of combinations of components that have been used en masse. But that doesn't mean you have a license to copy everything, because there are also lots of specific stylistic choices that are quite unique to particular designers' work.

    My general approach is to use common sense. Try to steal the "essence" of other websites' designs without resorting to simply copying the design wholesale. I tweeted about doing this last October:

    Stealing vs Copying

    An analogy would be if I wrote a poem and you were inspired because you'd never seen a poem before. Stealing the essence of my poem would be if you then wrote your own poem, copying the short lines and rhyming structure. Whereas copying my poem wholesale would be literally copying it word for word, and then maybe changing a few things. Steal, don't copy.

    Let's look at the OneNote header you mentioned. A quick Google search shows it's just a purple bar with some tabs and icons:

    OneNote Header

    The purple header is pretty simple! The components that make it up are obvious. So why copy it wholesale? Just steal the essence of what makes it work—using tabs for navigation and icons for actions.

    One trick is to look at multiple examples. Find multiple headers of various apps that use tabs and icons. That'll give you the perspective to tease out the principles of what makes the design actually work, and separate that from the stylistic idiosyncrasies that aren't crucial and that you probably shouldn't be copying.

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      I wish I could bookmark comments on IH because this one is gold. Especially that last tip at the end–that's my approach as well.

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        Maybe a IH guide would be good? What do you say @csallen? 😊

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        Yes for that bookmark feature. There are tons of them waiting in my Chrome bookmarks. Please bring this @csallen

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    This is great advice and thanks for sharing it. 👍

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