Sina.com steals Windows Live Layout… true?

Ok – clearly the biggest story today is Garry from the Windows Live team is claiming that a Chinese portal/classifieds site stole their design.

Here are the two designs (click design for larger version):

Windows Live

Sina.com

The only remote item I see is maybe the menu bar. Otherwise, Sina.com looks like a standard portal layout, something I have seen thousands of times. Garry claims they stole the graphic for the pushpin from Microsoft. I cannot confirm this but if they did steal it, then Sina should remove it.

I do not take the subject of copyright infringement lightly. In my 10+ years running HTMLCenter.com, I have dealt with about 30 thieves. In fact there is still one running out of a University in Sweden who seems to not want to remove the content they stole.

In my opinion this is just MS being a big powerhouse and using that weight to push on others. Just go check any portal templated site and I am sure MS can claim it is theirs!