Microsoft, one of the biggest software companies in the world, has allegedly stolen source codes from Plurk‘s web service.

Plurk is a startup web service company where users can “plurk” messages into an innovative scrolling timeline. While Plurk functions largely similarly to Twitter, Plurk allows users to browse “plurks” (analogous to “tweets”) in a fun, chronological manner as illustrated in the timeline. Users may also choose to reply to a plurk, cataloging user’s responses in convenient threads, much like how an online forum operates.

However, with Microsoft China’s recent launch of their MSN Juku/Hompy/Mclub service, users became suspicious of how much the new service not only operates similarly to Plurk, but also how it looks similar. A post in Plurk Labs’ official blog site confirms through their own investigation, that not only has Microsoft China copied Plurk’s look and function, but also the underlying programming code that runs it all.

Plurk Labs estimates that approximately 80% of the MSN service program code has been copied directly from Plurk’s code libraries.

See code comparison and evidence here.

Microsoft swiftly sent out a press release, saying that the MSN Juku service was not developed by Microsoft per se, but of a third party that was contracted by Microsoft China specifically to develop the web service. Microsoft has reportedly disabled MSN Juku services for the meantime, while a full-fledged investigation is being undertaken.

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