Great artists steal

The late Steve Jobs referenced the quote "good artists borrow; great artists steal" and since then it's been weaponized and used to both condemn Apple for a perceived lack of creativity, or to excuse or justify competitors for feeding off Apple's creativity, or both. There was Xerox PARC before the Mac, critics say. There were Palm Treos or LG Prada's before the iPhone. There were Tablet PCs before the iPad. Nobody copied Apple and if they did, Apple copied other people first! Great artists steal! Except that's not what the quote means, and it's not at all what Apple does. Great artists steal inspiration not implementation.

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