Popular in Asia, the microblogging site Plurk considers to
be the victim of plagiarism on the part of Microsoft China, and more stolen
code.
Launched in May 2008, Plurk is a microblogging service
multilingual perceived as a competitor of Twitter without having managed to
win, except perhaps in Asia, where despite the Chinese censorship he claims
instead of number 1. Plurk is in any case affording a publicity stunt by
accusing Microsoft Global China plagiarism and especially flight code.
To Plurk, if imitation can be seen as a form of recognition
on the Web, "the theft of code, design elements and user interface"
is unacceptable cons, especially when perpetrated by "the largest software
company in the world."
The dispute is a microblogging service launched by Microsoft
last month China: MSN Juku / Hompy / Mclub. According Plurk, which supports its
contention by screenshots (below), there is no doubt that this service is an
exact copy of his resume with mostly the same navigation system. Plurk who said
he never worked with Microsoft, estimates that 80% of the code of MSN Juku /
Hompy / Mclub was stolen from Plurk.
That’s the main criticism of Plurk that would wipe out a simple visual inspiration: "Microsoft has developed software libraries for Plurk, CSS files, the client code and has only been in his service without even attempt to hide! "
Plurk, therefore shows
more virulent in his comments and questions to follow up this case. For its
part, Microsoft has responded by press release. For Microsoft, it is still too
early to draw conclusions and investigations are in progress with its MSN China
joint venture, while access to the functionality Juku (beta) has been
temporarily suspended.
Microsoft said that its commitment to respect the
intellectual property, says that MSN China has worked with a vendor independent
for the creation of MSN Juku that allows MSN users to find friends using
microblogging and online games.
The third response, "that sounds like the misadventure
of the violation of the free license for Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool. A
case in which Microsoft has made amends with a return of the utility under
GPLv2 and the publication of his source code.
