I certainly agree that lack of regulation has helped in the growth of the web and internet. However, I would argue that open standards were even more critical.

I certainly agree that lack of regulation has helped in the growth of the web and internet. However, I would argue that open standards were even more critical. Email, DNS, TCP/IP, HTML -- Having a common base on which to build new technologies allowed a huge amount of innovation to occur very rapidly. Imagine the difference if many companies had competing formats for the base technologies. It would be like when railroad companies used different gauges for train tracks. Interoperability would have been a nightmare. Or worse, if a single company invented the tech and demanded royalties -- would the web be what it is if everyone had to pay royalties to use HTML? I believe that the innovations would have occurred eventually in this scenario, it just would have taken a lot longer.