1 - Newbie starts a topic - copy/paste content from bitcoin-related article + link (so no plagiarism),
2 - Would you reward a Newbie with his 1st merit point ... but his posting history is, in vast majority, bounty-campaign proof posts? Do you consider such people as spammers, or you just ignore campaign-report posts? After all, they don't pollute the forum and are contained in dedicated threads.
Good questions.
1 - Copy and paste with a reference link is not plagiarism or I would not consider so as long as it is clear that the poster is not attributing the text to himself nor trying to make it look as such. I would advise quotations or at least italics. I would not consider it a good post either for merit.
2 - Unfortunately now we do have to look in the post track of newbies to avoid the spam growing again. Personally, I would accept around 30 to 50% of campaign related reports as long as they are mixed with a track good posting.