There's been no policy change. redsn0w wasn't permanently banned due to several factors which made me think that permabanning him would be a net negative for the forum. Nobody is banned strictly because of "the rules"; it's always handled case-by-case, but almost always, plagiarists deserve to be permabanned.

If you think that a ban should be ended, make your case in a new topic from a "good for the forum as a whole" perspective.

Second chances can be given and you can argue that the punishment is harsh, but at the moment the rules are pretty clear that if you're caught plagiarising then it's a permaban. Once we start making exceptions for people it just opens up a huge can of worms and then everyone else who's had a ban will come out of the woodwork and complain it's not fair to them and people who are banned in the future will use this case as an example why they should be given another chance.

PM theymos or cyrus and make your case to them and maybe they will remove it. I'm not against second chances but there needs to be some consistency so it's fair to all. Hopefully signature bans could be issued in cases like this instead and people can keep their accounts, but at the moment I just wish people would stop plagiarising content so these bans aren't even needed in the first place and it's truly a sad state of affairs that they are.