[actuallyalys]

I think the comparison to outside art is very apt, although I think the boundary between professional and amateur was porous. Professionals wrote the tools amateurs used, they wrote the books and references at least some of those amateurs consulted, and I imagine they originally wrote at least some of the snippets that got copy and pasted endlessly. In theory, a return of the old web (aesthetically and socially) could involve people copying snippets like these. As you mention, the current web's complexity makes that unlikely, unfortunately.