Microsoft China steals Program Code.

Computerworld - Plurk, a micro-blogging service popular in parts of Asia, claimed today that its site design and underlying code were copied by a recently debuted service from Microsoft Corp.'s China division.

MSN Juku made its beta debut in China earlier this month as a way for users to post 140-character messages on a scrolling timeline interface.

According to Microsoft, MSN Juku is a "local innovation developed by MSN China...based on Windows Live Messenger networks."

At the time, local Chinese media were already commenting on the similarities in the look-and-feel between MSN Juku and Plurk, with one calling it a "bandit" version (Chinese slang for a knock-off).

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