Here’s the deal. Plurk is Asia’s No. 1 microblogging service (about 10 times larger than Twitter). Microsoft launched their own microblogging service (Juku) in November 2009 using the same user interface design and copied approximately 80-percent of Plurk’s proprietary interface code. Dave Thompson of Plurk:
If this was just a case of visual inspiration gone too far, we could probably have lived with it. We would have taken the time to reach out to Microsoft, get colour on the matter and try to amicably resolve it. That’s not the case here. This is something far more sinister. On closer inspection, we found that MUCH of the codebase and data structures that Microsoft’s MClub uses are identical snapshots of our code. Microsoft has taken Plurk’s custom developed libraries, css files and client code and just ported them directly over to their service without any attempt to even mask this!
Microsoft’s response?
Microsoft apologized Tuesday, saying an outside company hired to develop Juku copied a portion of the code from Plurk… The matter puts Microsoft in an unfamiliar position. The company has complained for years about the piracy of its software in China. In spite of its long experience with the issue, the software giant now finds itself apologizing for its failure to adequately safeguard the intellectual property of a rival code developer.
Why is anyone surprised by all this? It’s the culture of Microsoft.
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