Aside from the fact that plagiarism is, you know, wrong and greater figures in journalism than Box Turtle have had their careers ended and slapped down it's important to remember that this wasn't a victimless crime. Box Turtle's plagiarism allowed him to do a lot more and better (in some sense) work for the student newspaper than his peers, which is presumably what led to his getting a regular column at the paper. From what I've read his column was mostly sophomoric whining with writing of a much lower quality than the critics and others he stole from (I haven't yet found any examples of plagiarism in that column). But he outcompeted one or more of his peers to get the slot.
