Plurk, a microblogging site based in Taiwan, has accused Microsoft of stealing its code and design. A Plurk company blog posting today said:

"Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements is just not cool, especially when the infringing party is the biggest software company in the world. Yes, we’re talking about Microsoft. Blerg."

Plurk claims to have been the No. 1 microblogging site in China, and currently has sites in Taiwan, the U.S., Canada and Poland, and reports active users of about 500,000. The company's blog goes on to detail the similarities between the design and the code in a Microsoft China MSN site.

Mark Murray, a spokesman for Microsoft, released this statement:

“Microsoft takes intellectual property seriously, and we are currently investigating these allegations. It may take some time due to the time zone differences with Beijing.”

The current time in Beijing is 8 a.m. so Microsoft China should be starting its day shortly.

Dave Thompson, a public relations representative for Plurk for Asia-Pacific, said "it's probably too premature" to respond to Microsoft's statement. "Ideally we would like them to just shut down the site and re-evaluate the strategy in China.

Here is a screen shot from Plurk's posting comparing MSN on top to Plurk below.

From Pri0

Plurk went on to point out that Microsoft has been arguing for stronger anti-piracy enforcement in China.

"All the more ironic considering Microsoft has often been leading the charge on fighting for stronger IP laws and combating software piracy in China."

It's not clear whether Plurk is going to sue Microsoft. The company says it is seeking advice, researching the timeline of how this unfolded and calling on its users to spread the story far and wide. Plurk has nine employees scattered around the globe.

Thompson said it would have taken someone a lot of work to reproduce Plurk's code. "We spent a great deal of time obfuscating and ensuring the code was safe," he said. The company spent a few weeks investigating Microsoft's site and Thompson said, "Based on our analysis, we think there was some sort of deliberate intent there."