I'm not going to comment too much on the ethical dilemmas of this behavior but I think it is a symptom of the changing dynamic of the productization of the web.

I'm not going to comment too much on the ethical dilemmas of this behavior but I think it is a symptom of the changing dynamic of the productization of the web. The consumer products on the web (in the larger sense.. apps etc) seem to be moving more towards bite-size, disposable bits that attract attention by being somehow notable or sensational. Additionally, it seems like the half life of successful products are shortening over time as well. In other words, app development is moving more towards the movie and music industry model and less towards the types of business models seen in most hard science-based industries. A lot of this is enabled at least somewhat by tools that make it quicker and easier to build 'stuff' although I'd still say web application development is somewhat of a mess (but getting better). I see the long term trajectory being that eventually putting certain types of apps together will be very accessible to semi-technical people and will become relatively low effort. In essence, think Excel for apps that covers 90% of typical use cases (CRUD, etc.) (Note: this is not an argument that technical people will become obsolete - we will move onto the next challenge) As this comes more and more to fruition I think many will see applications as being ephemeral and relatively disposable, and consequently (as much as it pains me to say it), the acceptance and occurrence of copying features and design will continue to go up. Lastly, while the complaints about copying are valid and I personally find it pretty despicable, investors and entrepreneurs should know that this is a risk in competing in this space. Its getting easier to copy. There will continue to be more and more jackasses that take advantage of it due to better tools. If you want to mitigate the risk, focus on tough technical challenges.