Plagiarism Should be Penalized on DDO

(Sorry for any confusion in my sources, last round a couple references to 3 were meant to be 1) In case anyone missed it, the counterplan proposed by my opponent is a concession. Penalizing plagiarism by deleting debates, is still penalizing plagiarism. Defenses: Said terms, prohibit plagiarism. "If you look back at pro’s source [3], it clearly is not in reference to literation" This is a website consisting entirely of literation, there is no reason to believe it would have a Terms of Service (TOS) not intended to govern the written word. Please provide any quote from it that would support your claim. "it is in reference to holding other accounts" As anyone who has read the TOS should already know, that is covered under the "Will not create more than one account" rule [1]. "Not impersonate any person or entity" is most clearly a reference to not impersonating any person or entity at any time for any reason in any way. "or pretending to actually be another person" You really think that claiming to be the author of (to use an example) The Hobbit, is neither claiming to be the person who wrote The Hobbit, nor is it committing "the representation of that author's work as one's own." On this point, I must leave it to the judges to short out basic logic. Mine that claiming to be the author of something, is claiming to be the author of something, or con's that it'd be an "absurd" to connect claiming to be the author of something to claiming to be the author of something. "there will literally be no consequences" Except as my opponent has claimed "real legal action will come upon the website ... head members will be arrested for theft or fined which will negatively impact the website and these members’ lives." As my opponent has chosen to pre-refute their own refutation, I have nothing more to say on this. "not bad sportsmanship, this link was never established, but presumed." While my case in no way relies on it being Bad Sportsmanlike Behavior for the specific conduct penalty, as any penalty (such as ones suggested by my opponent) would still be penalizing it, I'll still expand upon the connection... Synonyms for plagiarism include piracy, fraud, falsification, and various other bad things [6]. Debate is a mental sport. To cheat at any sport is obviously bad sportsmanship. To use a physical sport for an analogy, I think any sane person would agree that a lightweight boxer who steps out of the ring, and sends in heavyweight Mike Tyson in wearing his shorts to take his place, has not magically won the competition. While yes if the judges fail to notice the difference he might be accredited the victory, however if they do notice he'll be heavily penalized. He may choose to go that route, but there is a risk to the reward he seeks. Of course my opponent may argue it's "fundamentally irrelevant to the actual [fight]," since a sound fighter was still there. Rebuttals: "the only thing necessary is that there is a sound argument for an opponent to refute" Plagiarism is quite often not sound arguments, it's normally spotted due to its disjointed nature, which most of the time fails to soundly address the original words of the opponent. If plagiarism should be used instead of actual thought on the topic, there is no reason to have debaters involved, as the website itself could just generate all the arguments it needs from an existing pool; to include votes previously cast. "That is what counts, your response, your voice to those arguments, your opinion, that is where your ideas come in, that is the real debate" None of which is plagiarism. My opponent has conceded what counts in debate is not plagiarized material, but everything user generated. This is further supported by the official How to Vote guide clearly referencing "did a better job of clearly explaining their arguments" [3], "their arguments," as opposed to copy/pasted ones they lack the ownership of to cede over to DDO. "There is no advantage to either team through plagiarism" First of all, please read the TOS, ("Will not disclose your password or transfer your account to any third-party, or allow any third-party to access your account" [1]) this site is for generally for individual debates, not team debates. Second, for there to be no advantage, there must be no intellectual quality difference between the people. If such is true, it is pure coincidence that Mikal has a 9000 ELO [7], and vi_spex has 1089 [8]. Once there is no difference, there is nothing at all unfair if you agree to debate vi-spex and he signs his account over to Mikal to handle the debate for him. "there is no dishonesty" Really, if we believe my opponent that lying is not dishonest, I suppose next the premeditated termination of another human adult life should in no way be confused with murder. "In fact there are only positives to plagiarisms in debate" My opponent is now claiming that negative impacts on the lives of members is exclusively a positive thing: "members will be arrested for theft or fined which will negatively impact the website and these members’ lives." Plagiarizing instead of making your own arguments is actually "freeing up more time to actually think about your response and increase its depth and increase your strategy" This one is too comical to warrant a response. "Kalam Cosmological argument" Stating that it is the Kalam Cosmological argument is admitting it came from elsewhere, rather than committing "the representation of that author's work as one's own." This is also going into the common knowledge area, like how merely mentioning Jesus Christ is not plagiarizing The Bible. "the plagiarism argument is just another way for people to pretend to do RFDs" If plagiarism currently lowers the quality of voting, it is clearly yet another negative thing about it. As these votes are allowed in all voting guidelines, further backed by the TOS we all agreed to, maybe the best solution to avoid this problem brought on by your own actions would be to not plagiarize and instead "actually think about your response." "simple fact is there is no explicit comment or rule from the website which directly mentions the subject of plagiarism" Unless the English language is thrown out, I clearly and repeatedly already proved that the TOS prohibits it. "even if one reads the TOA in full, they may not understand that plagiarism is unacceptable" Ignorance and stupidity are invalid defenses, this is a fallacious Appeal to Pity [9]. But you also think the TOS is in no way intended to be about written words, on a website made of written words. "all laws should be enforced" According to my opponent, not enforcing the rules regarding plagiarism on this site, will lead to members being thrown in prison (and suffering who knows what fate there), thus it is beyond clear that it should be discouraged. Sources: [6] http://www.thesaurus.com... [7] http://www.debate.org... [8] http://www.debate.org... [9] http://www.nizkor.org...