Aiming to reduce the background noise ...
Microsoft Blatantly Steals From Startup? [Updated]
Update: Microsoft suspended the site today. More details here.
I am not sure what to make of this one. Plurk, a very promising social networking startup is claiming that Microsoft (you read that right), has been involved with “blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements.”
What gives? Microsoft could easily just drop the engineers to do it themselves, or just buy Plurk if they wanted to. Why bother to steal something so, well, blatantly?
I am fiully not sure, but according to Plurk, some 80% of the new Microsoft MClub is stolen. Don’t think that they are speaking some truth? Take a look at the following three graphics:
Not to be a bit short to condemn, but what the hell is going on here? This is 100% not acceptable, and Microsoft could have quite the lawsuit on its hands damn soon if it does not move to rectify the situation.
Microsoft is one of, if not the, most important technology companies that exists. Theft of any form is reprehensible, but to steal from a small startup is downright petty, mean, small, and disgraceful. I hope that this is all some sort of giant mistake, or miscommunication. I fear that it is not.
Should we boycott Bing until we get answers?
Discussion - 65 Comments/Pingbacks RSS feed for comments on this post
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=== popurls.com === popular today
=== popurls.com === popular today…
yeah! this story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
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Microsoft puts MSN China Juku feature on hold while investigating code theft allegations | Microsoft News Tracker
[...] Reports surfaced yesterday that MSN China’s new Juku social networking feature bore more than a passing resemblance to a small social network site named Plurk. MSN China’s Juku feature has now been put on hold while Microsoft investigates: Here’s what we know at this point. Our MSN China joint venture contracted with an independent vendor to create a feature called MSN Juku that allowed MSN users to find friends via microblogging and online games. This MSN Juku feature was made available to MSN China users in November and is still in beta. [...]
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Fresh From Twitter: China and IP. … « Start-IP
[...] Why MSFT China be different? @TheNextWeb: MSFT Blatantly Steals From Startup [MSFT suspends site] http://bit.ly/4qTIBH ← Older Posts [...]
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Snippets 15-12-2009 | Nerin Online
[...] Wilhelm broke the story on Thenextweb.com and the article was on Digg front page in no [...]
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Microsoft FAIL: Stealing from a Startup? again? | Lotus Knows Web 2.0 & SMB
[...] Link to the original article. >> [...]
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pks4» Blog Archive » Linkpost | 12.15.2009
[...] Microsoft Blatantly Steals From Startup? – Plurk Stunned and Confused – Did Microsoft appropriate code and design from Plurk for its Chinese Club MSN? Also [...]
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Mozilla Completely Rips Off Design Agency’s Website
[...] the first time a company who should know better has completely ripped off another site. Microsoft recently launched and then pulled their own new site after it had been proven to be an exact rip off (design [...]
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Mozilla 被指抄袭 Web 设计公司的网站设计 : NetNe.COM
[...] 设计抄袭是一个经典的话题，毕加索说过，好的艺术家复制，伟大的艺术家剽窃，Web 或 UI 设计这种会随着时间改变的东西，抄袭更是不在话下，国内就不必说了，这种事，微 软都不能免俗。最近，Mozilla 被指在一款产品的 UI 设计中全盘照抄一家 Web 设计公司的网站设计，而这家设计公司曾为 Mozilla 提供过设计提案，不过被Mozilla否决了。 [...]
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Mozilla被指抄袭Web设计公司的网站设计 | My Sky
[...] Mozilla被指抄袭Web设计公司的网站设计 设计抄袭是一个经典的话题，毕加索说过，好的艺术家复制，伟大的艺术家剽窃，Web 或 UI 设计这种会随着时间改变的东西，抄袭更是不在话下，国内就不必说了，这种事，微软都不能免俗。MySky最近，Mozilla 被指在一款产品的 UI 设计中全盘照抄一家 Web 设计公司的网站设计，而这家设计公司曾为 Mozilla 提供过设计提案，不过被Mozilla否决了(完整图文版)。MySky这家被抄袭的公司叫 MetaLab， Mozilla 的这款产品叫 Jetpack，是一个用来设计Firefox扩展的平台，从产品截图上来看，该产品的界面几乎全盘照搬了Metalab的网站设计。MySky MetaLab 在一篇博客文章中表示，他们曾经就 JetPack 的 UI 设计，向 Mozilla 提交过提案，但被 Mozilla 否决，下图是当时提交的提案，甚至包含了报价： [...]
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Mozilla 被指抄袭 Web 设计公司的网站设计 « CNzeta
[...] 感谢锐商企业CMS的投递 新闻来源:thenextweb.com 设计抄袭是一个经典的话题，毕加索说过，好的艺术家复制，伟大的艺术家剽窃，Web 或 UI 设计这种会随着时间改变的东西，抄袭更是不在话下，国内就不必说了，这种事，微 软都不能免俗。最近，Mozilla 被指在一款产品的 UI 设计中全盘照抄一家 Web 设计公司的网站设计，而这家设计公司曾为 Mozilla 提供过设计提案，不过被Mozilla否决了。 [...]
Take a look at the country that the Microsoft product is being released in … IP means little to nothing here, no matter who your CEO is.
Isn’t a Plurk a Twitter clone (IMO that doesn’t come close).
Either they hired the same programer or used a common library or microsoft could have hired some company where one of the programmers just stole the script from plurk or looked up something and found code that had been ‘borrowed’ off of plurk’s code.
or they could have stole it but it seems really dumb of them to do that. anyways the title is really a bit of a fanwank.
“Should we boycott Bing until we get answers?”
no. if you don’t have answers you could be boycotting for no reason and punishing the wrong party.
#2, there accusing “Microsoft China” – not “Microsoft proper”, with a company of it’s size it’s possible for things like this to happen without the proper’s that be seeing it.
While it looks like Plurk is right in accusing Microsoft China it’s still too early to jump the gun. We’ll just have to see what Microsoft Proper has to say about it – if anything all. They may just let Microsoft China deal with it.
I wouldn’t exactly call Plurk “promising” but thats just my opinion.
Also, any chance that Plurk was built on top of software the licensed from another party? My micro- messaging site was built on top of commercial software that we licensed. Maybe Plurk and MS licensed the same backend?
Um, we’re talking about the FRONTEND not the backend. This is frontend code that was ripped, and no, Plurk was coded from scratch. Also, they ripped off the user interface. That certainly wasn’t licensed from anywhere.
According to http://opensource.plurk.com/ :
Doesn’t sound like “from scratch” to me.
If you use an open source word processor, can you write a novel from scratch?
Did Picasso paint from scratch or should he have made his brushes himself?
Do you understand this?
Your a nut. Have you looked at the open source apps they are using. They didn’t change the theme all that much at ALL. It is open source and a commercial website is allowed to use this even without having to document where they obtained it.
He’s not a nut, he’s exactly right. The open source software they’re using is similar to Ruby on Rails or Django in that it’s just a set of tools that creates their environment. Most of us in the industry create unique designs and applications by having a code foundation, just as a painter buys canvases from a store, and an architect doesn’t smelt their own iron.
It doesn’t excuse a company that large from doing such a blatant rip off – if you’re going to one up, atleast use it as a reference and do a drastic improvement upon it. This is inexcusable from such a large business, Microsoft’s main office should be ashamed to see this. If anything, it’s not going to increase their street cred in the web world.
They copied Bing Cashback from another site that does cash-back rewards too. Can’t find it, but I remember reading something about this too.
Looks like the big guys are not afraid to copy when innovation fails them.
Unfortunately looks like a Plurk and the like aren’t going to have the pockets to put the hurt back on MS
Spreading something one misremembers reading about has rather negative value. As far as I know, Microsoft bought Jellyfish for about 50 million and built their Cashback system starting from that.
Funny, this story made me log back into Plurk again for the first time in ages.
Still, the story itself is rather troubling.
D
hi Dave, How are you
i liked your reply to this artical, i was just wandering if you wanted to go for dinner some time.
i know that it is weird that i am on this site, but i like it.
your not katy price, she has spelling problems, you seem to be fine…gay
I am why dont u believe me? Your cruel.. after all the problems with the press now this….
I like modern warfare 2
OMG i want your gamer tag.. TELLL ME!!!PLZZ Katie
Why the fuck does this redirect to their Twitter account?
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Probably not a good idea to prop this article if it bounces you over to twitter. BTW… crap, they have a ton of followers.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Twitter account? Buried.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
because the digg effect downed their site
This comment was originally posted on Digg
Now they know what Apple felt like.
This comment was originally posted on Digg
oh, was I supposed to be using bing? oops…
kill it with DIGG!
This comment was originally posted on Digg
I thought this was the kind of thing you pirates celebrated. Oh wait… Microsoft did it. Must be bad.
Indeed, Plurk is one of the promising budding micro-blogging start up and they do have some interesting built-in features such as karma value, emoticon and verb presets, etc. which makes the micro-blogging activity more interesting. They also provide timeline visualisation which makes it easier for user to track a certain conversation. On the other hand, re-plurking and search remained an issue.
The reliability of the news is still yet to be confirmed, the mClub is currently closed until further notice and we shall wait until the official reply is made.
well, having grown up in the tech industry, and having watched microsoft grow from the first dos on IBM’s, I know a little about the company. I can say this… Anyone who is shocked at yet another microsoft theft has just not been paying attention.
That said,
If plurk used FOSS software in their UI or anywhere else, then depending on the version of the license it was released under(GPL anyone?) then there is nothing they can do but sit back and watch microsoft take their stuff. thats one of the pitfalls of GPL’d software. You lose some of those IP rights.
All in all, I’d say the author of the article is rather uninformed on the subjects and really has no grasp of what he wrote about.
I agree, this author has no concept of reality. Stating these two entities share the same FUNCTION() is irrational. These are objects and function calls that are universal. This was a waste of my read.
I dont really think that Microsoft Copr. Can be held responsible for this as it is Microsoft China’s problem.
Do you not remember the time that Yahoo asia released the names and accounts of everyone in Iran, who has a Yahoo account to the Iranian Gov.
It wasnt Yahoo that did it, it was Yahoo Asia.
Where is the evidence as to whom ripped off who?
Becote Bing!? Nobody is stupid enough to use Bing anyway.
“Becote [sic] Bing”
The spelling in that last comment is a good indicator of the level of person the article is pitched at, and evidently the level of person who jumps on the anti-MS bandwagon. I’d be ashamed to associate myself with the anti-MS community, but there are plenty of fools willing to take my place. ;)
Uh people, it doesn’t matter one whit whether it was MS proper, or China’s branch. That’s not the problem here. Theft of intellectual property is the main idea. And it’s wrong no matter who did it. Makes me wonder just what kind of people Microsoft hires. No wonder their OS are so freakin full of holes, they can’t write their own code worth a dang.
If they have to steal something as simple as this, makes me wonder what else they’ve stolen, that hasn’t been made public.
I guess they figure they’re so big that they can get away with anything.
A took from B
B took from A
A and B took from C
All are possible.
So far no evidence as to which
You ask that question like people actually use Bing :-)
Should we boycott Bing because of this? Well, I already am. I don’t need a “decision making engine” thank you. I’m perfectly capable of making decisions myself. I need a “search engine.” I am an information junkie. Decision’s just won’t do it for me.
However, I’m moving onto the Google search boycott as well. I find it degrading. The power of my searches has dwindled in the past month. When I search for a phrase such as “flybike” I can’t find the page I’m looking for because it also searches for “fly bike”. I didn’t ask for the !#&*ing space to be included, thank you. And when I search for a term with a space in it “test search” I get all kinds of returns like “test-search”, “test. search” and so on. “test search” returns nothing.
It’s been a long detour (on the order of nearly 10 years), but the circle is completing and I’m returning to yahoo (which has some similar problems, but simple modifications to the search engine allows more content and I can find what I’m looking for much better). Though some of the same behavior still persists, I can definitely find what I’m looking for easier and faster with yahoo.
Bottom line, I’m sick of these company’s assuming I’m stupid (I know, lowest common denominator sells) and making decisions for me (he must have actually been trying to search for this. He’s not searching for what everyone else is, he must be wrong). No, you’re wrong you devil damned bastard search crap.
I’m going to fiddle with Linux (ubuntu) now. Goodbye.
quote from wikiBuddha:
“…I’m sick of these company’s assuming I’m stupid…”
Company’s??!?? Maybe they are not assuming. At least in your case.
It seems very clear to me, from Microsoft’s statements at this stage, that they hired a company in China to create this website. Outsourcing FTW! We don’t yet know which company was responsible.
MS are clearly investigating and have already taken the strongest possible action.
*** What more do you expect MS to do, exactly? Please enlighten us. ***
Obviously the hiring company must take some responsibility for work done by outsourcing partners, but from some of the coverage of this story you’d think nobody ever experienced a problem with an outsourced project before.
More substance please, less sensationalist ranting. ;)
we should boycot bing anyways…
you’re surprised that microsoft is stealing someone else’s idea? seriously? where have you been for the last 20 years? lol.
you guys sure are quick to jump up and accuse the corporation of stealing. im sure they sat down and had a meeting about how they should copy this website.
it really looks like the case of a lazy dev or dev team to me.
no you are wrong. its is stealing. Are you still unaware MS’s ultimate strategy?
I didn’t realize anyone (except forced employees) used Bing.
If you have any moral concerns when choosing software, or any other things, you ought to stay well away from M$.
This is just the very tip of the iceberg.
Is anyone really surprised here?? Every MS product every release has been directly lifted or based off something else.
Mark
“Every MS product every release has been directly lifted or based off something else.”
This is a manifestly ill-informed argument. (In contrast, many of Google’s innovations genuinely are acquisitions of other people’s products.)
I am in complete agreement with Tim Acheson above. As a software developer it was obvious that Microsoft used an outside consultant to create the site who is the true IP thief. This happens in the sometimes US, but in China you should expect it (82% of all installed software is pirated in China vs. 20% in the US). I’m sure MS will drop the service for a bit, and expose the consultant. To say they “blatantly steal from a startup” is sensationalizing a story that happens all the time just because MS got duped by the consultant.
Remember these are the folks that have covertly bought and rebranded or blatantly stolen every “innovation” they ever had.
DOS -> “Inspired by” CP/M (Bought for 5 figures underhandedly and resold almost instantly to IBM for millions)
Windows -> “Inspired by” Lisa and Mac (Stolen under the guise of building apps for Mac)
Multiplan – >”Inspired by” VisiCalc (admittedly a better program, though)
Word -> “Inspired by” WordPerfect (Lost anti-trust suit from Novell)
This probably was a contractor, but we can be sure that he was given the instructions to “make a Microsoft version of Plurk,” and just took it too far. Face it, there’s absolutely no originality coming out of Redmond, and there never has been.
“there’s absolutely no originality coming out of Redmond, and there never has been”
Of course, this is in fact a meaningless anti-MS rant.
Microsoft has led the way in desktop software and many other areas for decades. You’ll notice that they have long been the market-leader by a huge margin in almost every market in which they operate. Their products are running in almost every business, at almost every desk in the world, and in almost every home that has any technology. They develop their own core technology and have their own development platform and programming languages, setting themselves apart from other companies — e.g. Google which acquired most of its products from third parties and develops using other people’s technologies and programming languages.
Of course, MS and many other tech companies have always spun-off ideas from each other. This is the nature of product development. One company develops an idea, and eventually another company improves on it. This is the essence of progress.
You even suggest that Windows was based on Mac, which demonstrates the level of your knowledge in the topic you’re attempting to discuss.
“In 1983 Microsoft announced the development of Windows, a graphical user interface (GUI) for its own operating system (MS-DOS), which had shipped for IBM PC and compatible computers since 1981.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows
“On January 24, 1984, Apple announced the Macintosh to it Board of Directors and to the world.”
http://lowendmac.com/history/index.shtml
“This happens in the sometimes US, but in China you should expect it (82% of all installed software is pirated in China vs. 20% in the US). I’m sure MS will drop the service for a bit, and expose the consultant. To say they “blatantly steal from a startup” is sensationalizing a story that happens all the time just because MS got duped by the consultant.”
It’s refreshing to find a contribution from a fellow software developer who can offer a meaningful insight into this industry and this story.
In a perfect government, one for the people, by the people, the President and Congress would address massive fraud and abuse that cause millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, life savings, and insurance.
Unfortunately, the most of our leaders (of all parties) are the problem, not the answer. These lawmakers, bought off by corporate greed, passed laws that make it legal for US companies to discriminate against Americans and recruit offshore to exclusively hire foreign workers for US jobs in the USA.
Microsoft, corporate greed, and political corruption got us where we are today – and nothing will change unless American Consumers vote with their wallets.
What can Consumers do to create American jobs?
Simple
BOYCOTT Microsoft.
NOW.
What better time than Christmas for greedy corporations and corrupt politicians to hear the voice of Americans?
Start with Microsoft, the founder, and largest abuser of laws that discriminate against Americans. The rest will follow and fall like dominos.
Say NO to XBOX and Windows 7.
Say YES to lower unemployment.
Say NO to Windows Mobile and Bing.
Say YES to changing laws that discriminate against Americans and deprive us of a fair chance to compete for jobs in our own country.
Please ask your friends to BOYCOTT MICROSOFT. Nothing will happen until American consumers scream where it hurts – our wallets.
Boycott Microsoft.
The Job You Save May Be Your Own.
This anti-MS rant is, frankly, deluded. Nice work promoting the book, though.
This is a story about an American company trying to expand into foreign markets, and the profits from MS enterprises flow primarily back to the USA. And you think this a good platform on which to complain about MS?
“the President and Congress would address massive fraud and abuse that cause millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, life savings, and insurance”
Microsoft is one of the most important contributors to the US economy, with market-leadaing products that have been used in almost every home and business on the planet for decades.
I live in the UK. We’ll gladly have MS here if you guys hate them so much. I’m serious. They’re a major employer here, too, and make a big difference to our economy. I’d love to see more jobs move from America to the UK. ;)
I thought we were already boycotting Bing!?!
I didn’t think people used Bing.
Where have you people been? Theft is the very soul of Microsoft. First Gates stole Dartmouth BASIC, then lied to IBM about having a DOS, then bought a CP/M rip-off from another idea-thief and tweaked it until it almost worked and called it MS/DOS. Windows was a rip-off of GUI tech developed by Xerox, which was also ripped off by Apple.
Microsoft steals tech and ideas then lobbies for legal protection from having their stolen stuff stolen from them.
Did you think Gates made all his money by being a technological visionary? This is the guy who said no one will ever need 10 MB of storage!!! He just knows how to squeeze money out of PCs.
Gates is not a Wozniak or a Licklider. He’s a JD Rockefeller.