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Plagiarism is among the worst things that a user can be accused of. Plagiarism also hurts Wikipedia by providing ammunition to our critics and the media, who compare it to other sources of information.
On Wikipedia, plagiarism is a constant problem. Although much of our content traces its roots to public domain information, material is frequently copied and pasted to Wikipedia from web pages, books, magazines, and other sources that are not credited. The material is usually added by good-faith contributors, but when plagiarized and unsourced information is added to an article, it typically ends up being reverted by veteran editors.
Lastly, although not strictly the same, plagiarism is a good indicator of copyright infringement. Plagiarism is one of the fastest ways to endanger an article. If the material was plagiarized from a copyrighted source, the article will be reverted to the last good version or even deleted for copyright infringement. Due to the various legal issues surrounding copyright, the violating editor also finds themselves in trouble with the community. The user could face a wide variety of sanctions, ranging from a stern warning to blocking.
What follows below is a shortened and slightly edited version of "Let's get serious about plagiarism" by Awadewit, Elcobbola, Jbmurray, Kablammo, Moonriddengirl, and Tony1.