Microsoft responds to Plurk code theft

Earlier today the pitchforks and burning embers came out in full force on the allegations that Microsoft China had blatantly ripped off code and design from Canadian based social network Plurk.

Duncan wrote about the whole mess earlier here at The Inquisitr and now we finally have a response from Microsoft beyond their typical “we’re looking into the matter”. Here is the response from the company via t heir PressPass page:

Earlier today, questions arose over a feature developed by a third-party vendor for our MSN China joint venture. We are working with our MSN China joint venture to investigate the situation.

Unfortunately, when these questions first arose, it was the middle of the night in China. Now that the day has begun in China, our teams are working hard to track down the information.

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.

Because questions have been raised about the code base comprising the service, MSN China will be suspending access to the Juku beta feature temporarily while we investigate the matter fully.

We will provide additional information as we learn more.

hat tip to Long Zheng on Twitter