"37signals can cry foul, but they're discovering the downside of making products with low barriers to entry." according to the first comment on the 37Signals issue on readwriteweb (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/huddlechat_campfire_rip...)
That and "you can't btch about it because you don't have the fanbase"; pretty much sums up this article :)
But still a nice read.
I think the layout similarity was an issue; but it seems to me that they just have demonstrated a barrier to entry (a non-product one).
For a product company, 37Signals does a lot of blogging, conferences, a book and so on. I think the guys are good at this, and they really enjoy it. It makes me think that, in a way, 37SIgnals is really an educational/PR company, that happens to make money from their software. If you want something like what they make, you'll need to pay someone to host it - why not them, since they are nice guys?
