The damage done through plagiarism and the deception it entails damages not just those involved, but also the entire information security community when it is one of our own.
Plagiarism can be no different to receiving stolen intellectual property
What has changed is the ease and distances associated with the distribution of copied materials. The global Internet allows people to copy and distribute copyrighted works almost instantaneously anywhere in the world be this on a one-to-one distribution or using a shared P2P network. Intermediaries are involved as both the storage sites and the conduit.
http://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/16162-Internet-Piracy-Plagiarism-a...