The problem is that sometimes whales and dolphins plagiarize too and there is a different set of rules for them.
I have actually seen a whale post an entire book once and I am still paying the price for just mentioning it. There is also a dolphin that 99% of his posts are just copy and paste articles and he is making a fortune doing so.
When new users see that their peers are making thousands by plagiarizing they assume that this is one avenue for becoming successful and I don't think it is fair to go after the minnows while ignoring the worst offenders.
To end plagiarism we really need to take a top down approach, so minnows can't continue to point at the veterans, while saying that they were only doing what the veterans were doing.
Also the consequences, of letting people make thousands off of other author's content, could potentially be disastrous for our investment, but I am no lawyer.
Reproducing someone else's work without permission is illegal, even if you credit the author. It's just as bad as plagiarism and some people on Steemit are earning a fortune from it.