The Internet benefits from this freedom. Consider Wikipedia, for example. It once used to be laughed at — how can a few volunteers produce better content than experts? — but is now a classic example of what spontaneous order can achieve. It is much broader than the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and often deeper as well. It has its own self-correcting mechanisms, and its rules of use have evolved from the bottom up, and not been enforced from the top down. It shows that the voluntary actions of people working towards their self-interest is a far more powerful force than the self-important and sanctimonious supervision of governments. Online, we’re all free.

Supporters of free markets stress the rule of law — and the Internet is not a lawless zone. The laws of the real world apply to what we do

online — sometimes to worrisome effect, as jailed bloggers in countries like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia have discovered. But on the whole, the Internet is free of the kind of needless, suffocating government regulation and barriers to trade that bedevil the rest of the world. Long may it stay that way.

Amit Varma, winner of the 2007 Bastiat Prize for Journalism, blogs at indiauncut.com

amitblogs@gmail.com