Flickr find: 1Password icon shows up in the strangest places

If you're an independent Mac software developer, having a wicked cool icon for your application is both a blessing and a curse. Users will remember you for the sleek, Leopard-ready goodness of your icon ... and other unscrupulous marketers will rip you off shamelessly to promote their own products, rather than ponying up for an original design.

The all-time champion victim (self-reported) of icons ripped off is Panic's Transmit FTP tool; the little truck shows up just about everywhere you could possibly imagine. New to the underground icon market, however, is the 1Password browser-key logo -- it may make you think "Hey, I could drive Safari to the supermarket!" but apparently the makers of ProductKeyFinder, a Windows serial number app, found it too delicious to pass up. The purloined product identity is visible on PKF's eBay sales page and on Flickr. It looks like the packaging has been updated (and the product renamed to Product Key Explorer), so this tale of icon swiping has a happy ending.

Thanks Roustem!