This magical knowledge-multiplying quality comes from the voluntary effort of many people who freely contribute expertise. That power of a large group of people to act as a thinktank for each other is vulnerable to misuse. A small number of malefactors can mess up a good thing for a large number of cooperative citizens. The network is valuable because it helps us filter information. A raw flow of unrelated information is no good if you have to sift through a thousand irrelevant items to find the one you need.
Computers can organize information, even the kind that accumulates through informal discussions.
If you want to discuss or find out about pedigreed dogs or semiconductors, the vast but organized conversation makes it possible for you to read only the newsgroups devoted to the topics that interest you. Out of more than six thousand different newsgroups there are probably a few whose readers might be interested in the services those attorneys offered. If every newsgroup becomes a hodgepodge of advertisements along with the freely exchanged information and conversation, then it no longer makes sense to have six thousand newsgroups, and every person who uses the Net loses the ability to filter information that way. For hundreds of years, herders grazed their cattle and sheep on common land. As long as no individual tried to graze too many cattle, everybody benefitted from the common resource.