Does grading based on a curve make cheating unfair? I went through this and still can't fathom why cheating isn't black-and-white.  Nevertheless, https://www.csusm.edu/dos/studres/wwwc.html says,


  "A cheater receives through deception what honest students work hard for; and in classes graded on a curve, he lowers their grades to boot."


Ok, I get why people don't cheat(moral fortitude) and why people don't rat(social fortitude); and that's just me saying I'm on the "I'll force all you cheaters to pay for your injustices" side; but is it the grading system that makes it bad for honest students?  If honest students honestly receive high marks, but are "curved down" in rank because cheaters get near perfect marks, then grading based on a curve must be one of the only things that makes it unfair.

--- clarification:
Grading on a Curve: means to statistically conform grades of all those measured to a curve that measures performance based on a norm-referenced assessment.

Would cheating still be considered unfair if we drop the concept of grading according to a curve?  (which we should)
Would cheating still be considered unfair if we drop the concept of grading according to a curve? (which we should)


Of course!

Let's assume that without cheating 10% of students get As. Therefore, students who earned As are a small group. Having an A might help getting funding, or finding an internship or a job. Now let's say that with cheating, 50% (no normalizing) of students get As, now an A is no longer that valuable because a lot of people have them. Therefore, the value of As that honest students earned has diminished.