Microsoft's Social Network Accused Of Plagiarism

Microsoft is in deep shit for plagiarism. They are always making themselves out to look like victims – their profits are being eaten up because people don’t respect intellectual properties. But look at what they are doing, copying other people’s code into their work then monetizing it later.

In this case, the corporate behemoth ripped off social network Plurk, while creating its own China-based microblogging site Microsoft MClub (also known as Juku).

Microsoft’s defense is that it happened in China, where intellectual property don’t command much respect. But Microsoft should have the basic courtesy to get permission instead of copying almost 80% of Plurk’s codes.

Plurks users at first thought there was some collaboration with Microsoft, but Plurk assures that is not the case. Instead it was outright plagiarism. A posting on Plurk’s Web site explains: “Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements is just not cool, especially when the infringing party is the biggest software company in the world.”

To Microsoft’s credit, it has taken this issue seriously and suspended the Juku service while it tries to sort the mess out.

[Reuters]

Paul is a geek who shares his thoughts on technology, gadgets, social networks and football in this blog. Stay in touch with his updates by subscribing to the RSS feeds or Email. Thanks for visiting Seventoten and leaving a comment.  To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box.