Don't you just love the complaints (read some of the comments as well) that 37Signals has made about a pet project some Googlers made on their new app engine; Huddle Chat?
No one at Parlano (or UBS for that matter) ever complained about 37Signals (and many others) copying the original idea of persistent group chat created in the mid '90's by a group of bank developers. They used an IRC standard that helped them create a rich application that served a specific purpose. But, even they weren't doing something completely original, they simply solved an important business problem. They, and Parlano, did what smart companies do, they innovated all along the way and made an application rich in functionality and easy to deploy.
The collaboration space has gotten crowded and mature. There's still innovation to come, but not by complaining someone stole an idea. And, quite frankly, if some Googlers created this application in "their spare time" how much real advantage does something like Base Camp have anyway? Those barriers to entry are smaller than some might want to admit, at least publicly.
Users will flock to the tools and applications they like and think are best, and nothing less. Complain all you want. All that is doing is emboldening some group of developers to spend a weekend creating a basic group chat/BaseCamp knock off (probably many) eliminating any advantage they had (in reality or in their minds).
