Before making money from websites, people put on their website things that interested them or they believed in. After, things of value in terms of visitors.

An example: If a blogger put out something of quality, there wasn't really a risk of other people "stealing" his content, because 1) the people who would be reading his blog would generally be above that quality of behaviour; if they were people with that type of behaviour they would be on other websites generally; 2) there was almost no incentive to steal content - you could get high opinions by reposting other people's content, sure, but you were also open to criticism for stealing content, which represents a serious disincentive to people in this type of ecological space.

After monetization, stealing content is actually preferable. It means less effort (which also refers to barrier to entry as lower-capacity people can participate by appropriating) and more chance of revenue (which also refers to quality or integrity, as individuals without these values are incentivized for participation), which is the formula of business in this type of ecology.

Just an interesting note, that's all.