I don't currently have mod points, but I think it's awesome that you came here to clear it up.
Anyone who is creative enough to make something worth reading is creative enough to do it without wholesale copying. Plagiarism is stigmatized even beyond what is protected by copyright.
Plagiarism is only stigmatized when people recognize it as plagiarism. Plenty of times someone will come up with an original idea - maybe it was bad timing or bad marketing or whatever - and the idea doesn't do shit. A couple of years later someone else takes that exact same idea - sometimes downright copying it - and because of luck or better marketing hits it big. Now, we all know that the world isn't fair - but don't you think the originator should have some protection in place?
Now, I'm not in love with the current incarnation, but it's a damned sight better than "nothing".
Well yes, but it's the people that AREN'T creative that are willing to copy without attribution - as usual, the honest people aren't the ones you have to worry about.
I wish I could understand your refutation of the article that I also didn't understand.
"I am, therefore I am." -- Akira