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Microsoft said on Tuesday that a blogging application posted to its MSN China site did in fact copy code from a rival.
Microblogging site Plurk lashed outat Microsoft on Monday saying that the Juku application stole its userinterface and code. Microsoft said on Monday that it was investigating the matter and suspended the Juku service on Monday night.
Microsoft has said a third party and not it or its Chinese joint venture partner wrote the Juku program.
"The vendor has now acknowledged that a portion of the code theyprovided was indeed copied," Microsoft said in a statement. "This wasin clear violation of the vendor's contract with the MSN China jointventure, and equally inconsistent with Microsoft's policies respectingintellectual property."
Microsoft said it is now suspending access to the Juku beta "indefinitely."
"We are obviously very disappointed, but we assumeresponsibility for this situation," Microsoft said. "We apologize toPlurk and we will be reaching out to them directly to explain whathappened and the steps we have taken to resolve the situation."
Plurkhas not said what, if any, action it will take against Microsoft. In ablog posting on Monday, it said it is still evaluating its options.
"We'restill in shock asking why Microsoft would even stoop to this level ofwillfully plagiarizing a young and innovative upstart's work ratherthan reach out to us or innovate on their own terms," Plurk said in the blog.
It's the second time in recent weeks that Microsoft has been accused of lifting code. It was forced to pull a Windows 7 download tool after that product was found to contain open-source code. Microsoft blamed a third-party vendor in that case as well.
The company also said it and its Chinese joint venture "will be takinga look at our practices around applications code provided bythird-party vendors."
Microblogging site Plurk lashed outat Microsoft on Monday saying that the Juku application stole its userinterface and code. Microsoft said on Monday that it was investigating the matter and suspended the Juku service on Monday night.
Microsoft has said a third party and not it or its Chinese joint venture partner wrote the Juku program.
"The vendor has now acknowledged that a portion of the code theyprovided was indeed copied," Microsoft said in a statement. "This wasin clear violation of the vendor's contract with the MSN China jointventure, and equally inconsistent with Microsoft's policies respectingintellectual property."
Microsoft said it is now suspending access to the Juku beta "indefinitely."
"We are obviously very disappointed, but we assumeresponsibility for this situation," Microsoft said. "We apologize toPlurk and we will be reaching out to them directly to explain whathappened and the steps we have taken to resolve the situation."
Plurkhas not said what, if any, action it will take against Microsoft. In ablog posting on Monday, it said it is still evaluating its options.
"We'restill in shock asking why Microsoft would even stoop to this level ofwillfully plagiarizing a young and innovative upstart's work ratherthan reach out to us or innovate on their own terms," Plurk said in the blog.
It's the second time in recent weeks that Microsoft has been accused of lifting code. It was forced to pull a Windows 7 download tool after that product was found to contain open-source code. Microsoft blamed a third-party vendor in that case as well.
The company also said it and its Chinese joint venture "will be takinga look at our practices around applications code provided bythird-party vendors."
Source: Cnet.com
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