Did Apple iSteal the design for iPad’s iBooks?

One of the biggest reveals at yesterday’s insanely over-hyped Apple iPad launch was iBooks, which allows users to select titles from their own virtual bookshelf. It’s a smartly designed feature, and as one savvy Tech Crunch blogger points out, looks uncannily similar to Delicious Monster’s award-winning Mac app Delicious Library. Here’s a comparison of the two products.

During yesterday’s launch, Delicious Monster founder Wil Shipley tweeted, “No, Apple didn’t license iBooks from me. They just copied me. Ah, well.” Later, in a response to Tech Crunch, he writes:

But the thing about iBooks is, it’s a book reader. So, of course they looked around, found the best interface for displaying books (Delicious Library’s shelves), and said, Yup, this is what we’re doing.

Shipley claims that Apple has denied his allegations:

Now, of course Apple couldn’t contact me ahead of time and say, “Hey, we’re taking your idea, thanks.” Their lawyers would worry they’d open themselves to a huge lawsuit, for one, and they’d also be leaking a secret. Nor could they write me a check. Even a token one would be an admission (in their lawyers’ eyes) that they were copying something. They are a public company—they can’t write someone a check unless they got some value in return. And if they got value, the lawyers would ask, how much was it? How was it determined? So their official policy has to be, “No, of course it’s a crazy coincidence that these shelves look almost entirely like Delicious Library’s shelves.”

• Think iBooks looks familiar? You’re not the only one [Tech Crunch]