Plagiarism: Moral hazards or strategies for the 21st century?

My book chapter/ case study on academic plagiarism just recently came out - "Copycats of the Central Himalayas: Learning in the age of Information."

Basically, I spent about 8 months in Almora, a rur-town in Central Himalayas, investigating what people do with the Internet. Given that cybercafes had sprung up relatively recently, I volunteered to work for one in exchange of playing witness to internet usage. It was amazing as I really actually pictured people to be using it for the usual browsing and entertainment oriented stuff. Instead, I became an active accomplice to plagiarism by college students - open, active, ingenious plagiarism! Of course as soon as one says "plagiarism," academics and others get all hassled about it, frothing in the mouth about it immorality, the decline of this generation and more. Rather than focus on the "pathological" reasons why students do what they do, I thought it would be worth stopping and asking how on earth did these students learn to do what they do! To know where to look, how to look, how to assemble information strategically and create an entire thesis out of other people's material is a talent in itself..not trying to glorify plagiarism but am trying to emphasize the "learnings" that go on with new technology which begs us to question what is learning in this day and age!