In 2000 an American high school student by the name of Marcus Arnold became the leading law expert on the Internet’s most popular knowledge sharing site, AskMe.com. Despite having no formal education or legal training, Marcus managed to acquire his lofty status on AskMe.com after falsely registering as a “law expert.” Marcus simply had the motivation to study law, and the resources to do so were within his grasp. (For more on this story, see Michael Lewis’ Next.)

In the late 1970’...