"Plagirism? Really?" - Yes. That's what they did. They copied someone elses work and pasted it in their own post to get rewards for work they had not done themselves. That is plagiarism.

"And are you really trying to compare infractions in the forum to duping/cheating???" - Yes. Using someone elses work to boost your posts up massively IS cheating.

"I don't think it's too much to ask to actually have the rules somewhere" - https://mafiareturns.com/Rules.php (also found under your help menu)

How is copying the work of someone else and posting it in the game in order to gain the benefits of the content not plagiarism? If you're suggesting that RPing the fact that they're saying they're singing someone elses song and it's not an original work, that's tenuous at best. If that is the case I might grab a copy of Ulysses, paste it into a street thread, RP it as my Uncle Lovehand reading it to me and finish it off with a nice "Good read bro. I'll have a burger too" to ensure it's all legit. 

Ignoring the belief that reproducing it in this manner isn't plagiarism, it's more than likely illegal. Unless the people involved have written permission from the artists in question, I'd be keen to hear under what basis they believe they're entitled to invoke fair use? (Honestly, if they have a way it'd be incredibly valuable for me with work) 

Spamming for points is explicitly mentioned in the game rules you sign up under when creating an account. (Should be point 11, ignore the auto-numbering that's following the paste here) 

1. No spamming or abuse via mob mail or in forums. This includes advertising businesses and services in game. This also includes out of game sites. Do not mass mail people at random and you won't have a worry. This also include spamming for points. Copy/pasting/plagiarizing in an attemp for points is considered spamming. Spamming and excessively abusing users is bad, you die. Simple. If you feel you must spam every funeral because you think you're getting points for it—Don't bother.
2. Reasons for not bothering:
3. 1) You don't get points.
   2) You could lose your account for spamming.
   3) You look like a complete fool.
   4) Posting "RIP" in every funeral is spam. You will die. Be creative, use the funerals for what they are there for, not to get your post count up. 

 .... looking at the rules, technically death should be the punishment here.

I'm sure it'll be in the wiki somewhere. I know it's pinned at the top of the streets. I can dig out plenty of links to locations saying what should be, and in reality is, common sense. Basic common sense would also give a clue that it's not acceptable and probably not a good idea.

It's not like this was a single post where someone thought they were being funny. It was a heck of a lot of them. It wasn't in a single Business District, it was in multiple. People were repeatedly posting vast amounts of content stolen from copyrighted lyrics and adding a tiny line or two of RP. Huge menus were being blockquoted for the sole reason of saying "A burger dude". Whether intentional or not (it does look incredibly intentional and seeing as it never happened on the streets more than a little suspect) it abused the game mechanics and resulted in a punishment, as it should. 

Being honest, this isn't the kind of thing I like to see happen. This is the type of thing that we as users should be doing on our own. We shouldn't need game mechanics to step in here and slap us on the wrists. We're more intelligent than that and value our community more than that. This is the type of thing we should be solving all on our own. This time, we failed. Lets work harder and make sure it doesn't happen again. 

Please point to me where on that page it talks about copy/pasting.  And again it's not plagiarism, maybe you should read the definition of plagiarism:
 

ACCORDING TO THE MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE DICTIONARY, TO "PLAGIARIZE" MEANS

• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own
• to use (another's production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft
• to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

Please tell me how singing, and attributing the song as a song and not self-created work, constitutes plagiarism?  It doesn't.   Quit being foolish.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the cheating thing.  I think you're absurd for feeling that way.

And again, please tell me where on that page it says you can't copy/paste lyrics into a thread?  Or in the posting guidelines? 

Ok, I retract my part about it not being in the rules, my bad. (still not plagiarism, but in the rules) 

Literary Theft? That falls under the definition of plagiarism you're willing to use? I'd imagine copyright infringement, taking and reproducing the artists work without their permission (even including attribution) would be considered literary theft? 

If it's not, your only argument here is that "They were carrying out illegal copyright infringement and illegally reproducing work, but they weren't trying to plagiarise it" based on an extremely tight (and widely debated) narrow definition of plagiarism. It's still illegal and breaking game rules (not to mention the spirit of the rules which covers the millions of outliers and edge cases that a list of rules can't possible explicitly state). 

The only time this exploit is dangerous useful is during wars when people shamelessly c/p to bump their vision up to find people. By the time the offences are reported and noticed the war would likely be over and the offenders most likely dead or alternatively people will be so caught up in the post war rage they won't even pay attention. 

Not sure if this has been suggested already, but would it be possible to just remove any "points" from blockquoted material? So rather than: points from post = points_function(words), it would be: points from post = points_function(words - (all words in blockquote)).

Seems like an easy way to avoid the spam while still allowing people to use blockquotes as intended.

Denam there's a thread just slightly down the page a little: http://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/507238#93874226

:)

Well don't I look rather silly.