There are some people who believe Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung is all about rectangles and that Apple has no right to sue based on that criteria. That’s just false and I think I’ve found a way to explain it so everyone can understand.

Let’s look at this from the point of view of a musician. Everyone loves music, right?

If there’s a hit song on iTunes right now, is it okay if I learn how to play that song, copy down the lyrics and release the exact same song? Everyone would say no, that’s not okay. Even the most ardent Samsung supports would be aghast if they heard their favorite song copied and re-released.

But why? A song is just a collection of notes and words. What’s stopping me from taking those same notes and words and releasing a song? After all, musical notes and words are free for anyone to use, so copying that song and making a lot of money from should be just fine.

Except it’s not. What you would be copying is the way those notes and words were put together to create a song.

The iPhone and iPad are Apple’s songs. In fact, it could be said that Apple even created a few new instruments along the way.

Samsung didn’t just copy rectangles from Apple. They copied years of research in how to put together a hardware and software design that is new and fresh. It wasn’t done before and people loved it.

Using the music analogy, Apple had two blockbuster hit songs and Samsung stole them, note for note. That’s not right.