Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Sentenced to Life in Prison

[AGD]

In the end he knew about the strict drug laws in the US and he still broke it. It doesn't matter how musch people think this is unfair. You don't even need to know the law of your country to still be responsible when breaking it. If you spend your holidays in a country, where you get jail for "public kissing", it doesn't help saying you didn't know. Ross is an intelligent guy. He can't tell the people, that this was an "economic experiment", when in fact he was simply earning commission from illegal goods, just like Pablo Escobar  and all the other leaders of drug empires. Even worse, he didn't organise his business eye to eye, but everything with the anonimity of the internet. Simply write some lines and somebody gets killed! It's as easy as that. No more meetings with shady killers and handing over big money in a paperbag. He might have been a nice guy once, but based on the presented evidence it looks like he has changed a lot into a mercyless drug lord.

You have some decent points and some not so decent imo.

I know for sure i wont be spending my life supporting/keeping track of the BS laws the centralized govs make up.  If we all follow the laws to the letter and never push boundaries things would get even worse for the average man in society.  The more controlled we are the better it is for elites so the goal posts just shift inward if we all good boys and girls.   Its not really about morality & it should be.

I'm not sure they used any charges of hire murders vs Ross in the case so we dont know anything conclusive there do we?

A just system wouldn't be putting him in a maximum security prison for life.  What a waste of tax money and waste of an intelligent forward thinking human.  Give him community service im sure we could use his insight.

I think you can argue it was an economic experiment as it was the first of its kind, but that doesn't mean it wasn't highly illegal. Maybe SR and the markets that follow will pave the way for drug reform or a change in the laws or at least decentralized markets which LE will have a very tricky time trying to police given their nature. I think Ross was silly to have been a resident in the states whilst running it. He seemed to travel a lot so he should have just holed up in some far away country and operated it from there  and they would have had a very difficult time trying to arrest him then.

I agree with the unjustice in most, if not all drug laws, but that is another level of discussion. There is already a ongoing political debate in Europe about the cannabis laws for example, which might lead to the legality of cannabis in a few years. Since there are no deaths resulting from the use of cannabis in its history, there IS a basis for a rational discussion. Now selling things like Heroin (created by the Bayer company in Germany as far as I know), is a completely different story to me. People are dying from this crap and guys, that are selling it or making it easy for everyone to buy it, are not acting for the "freedom of society", but for their own profit with the risk of his "product" causing the death to someone. This person is indeed a danger to society and should be locked up.

I still hope to be proven wrong, though - maybe because the logfiles were altered or something like that, or he was really "tricked back in", like he stated in court.

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[gkv9]

Finally, the wrong deeds were given the right punishment as such a guy who ruined lives of people selling drugs, has his own life ruined forever now...

[GonnaGrinditout]

In the end he knew about the strict drug laws in the US and he still broke it. It doesn't matter how musch people think this is unfair. You don't even need to know the law of your country to still be responsible when breaking it. If you spend your holidays in a country, where you get jail for "public kissing", it doesn't help saying you didn't know. Ross is an intelligent guy. He can't tell the people, that this was an "economic experiment", when in fact he was simply earning commission from illegal goods, just like Pablo Escobar  and all the other leaders of drug empires. Even worse, he didn't organise his business eye to eye, but everything with the anonimity of the internet. Simply write some lines and somebody gets killed! It's as easy as that. No more meetings with shady killers and handing over big money in a paperbag. He might have been a nice guy once, but based on the presented evidence it looks like he has changed a lot into a mercyless drug lord.

I think RU had no criminal records prior to silk road? All experienced criminals have a long history of arrests..
RU was running illegal activities alone, he was not  part of an organized crime. That is the reason why he could use only bitcoin and darknet. Being alone he didn't have connections with US banks involved in money laundering, corrupted politicals,  hitmen, ... like the mob has to run their businesses without too much problems.
I am not saying RU is an angel, far from that, I think he deserved 5 years in prison, like a second chance. Life in prison without parole is like death penalty.

[MicroGuy]

Actually, the guy tried to have people killed and children died buying drugs from his website.

The government often oversteps its bounds, but in this case I think the punishment fits the crime.

Ross Ulbricht forced no one to do anything, and you're classic example of sheeple. Actually, his site brang nothing but quality in free market.

Silk Road actually "expanded" drug availability by making dangerous substances available to anyone with a computer and some bitcoins.

It was this "anything goes" policy that made the website a nuisance to society. Silk Road should have stuck to natural plant medicines.

[Beliathon]

Even if he did commit all those horrible crimes people say he did he should at least get the chance of parole.
Otherwise what's the point of the criminal justice system? Isn't it called correctional facility and not storage facility?

You mistake the purpose of this life sentence. It's not to punish Ross Ulbricht, it's to intimidate all the other potential Ross Ulbrichts out there.

And it's not going to work, because the Silk Road was very useful and therefore very profitable. In capitalism profit finds a way to be made, just as water always finds a way downhill.

[bryant.coleman]

You mistake the purpose of this life sentence. It's not to punish Ross Ulbricht, it's to intimidate all the other potential Ross Ulbrichts out there.

And it's not going to work, because the Silk Road was very useful and therefore very profitable. In capitalism profit finds a way to be made, just as water always finds a way downhill.

The TOR is not anonymous anymore. A large number of the TOR relays are controlled by the CIA, which helps them to identify the darknet users. So, until a new anonymization method is found, not many are going to follow Ross's lead. That means that the authorities have achieved a temporary success. But eventually, a new method will be found and the CIA / FBI won't be able to do anything about it. And then, people like Ross Ulbricht and Blake Benthall will be revered as heroes, who stood up against the system.

[jonald_fyookball]

Even if he did commit all those horrible crimes people say he did he should at least get the chance of parole.
Otherwise what's the point of the criminal justice system? Isn't it called correctional facility and not storage facility?

You mistake the purpose of this life sentence. It's not to punish Ross Ulbricht, it's to intimidate all the other potential Ross Ulbrichts out there.

And it's not going to work, because the Silk Road was very useful and therefore very profitable. In capitalism profit finds a way to be made, just as water always finds a way downhill.

gasp*. did Beliathon just say something positive sounding about capitalism?

[bryant.coleman]

Ross Ullbricht sent to life in prison (without parole) for putting up a marketplace, where people could purchase drugs. OK. Got that. Now you judge what should be the quantum of punishment to be given to these guys:

An Afghan man harvests opium in a poppy field while US soldiers look on in a village in Golestan district, Farah province, Afghanistan:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/5279303/Opium-harvest-in-Afghanistan.html

When the US government actively participates in heroin trafficking, it is not a crime. But when some ordinary person tries to make weed available to everyone, it is a horrendous crime.

[mishax1]

http://www.epixhd.com/movie/deep-web

Code:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:9edb043e042e4033e4acbcb74fe950a9828691ca&dn=Deep_Web.(2015).WebRip.UBFlixRip.mp4&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3a80%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.publicbt.com%3a80%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.ccc.de%3a80%2fannounce

[lumeire]

A lot of life lessons can be learned on this thread. 

[ajareselde]

Ross Ullbricht sent to life in prison (without parole) for putting up a marketplace, where people could purchase drugs. OK. Got that. Now you judge what should be the quantum of punishment to be given to these guys:

An Afghan man harvests opium in a poppy field while US soldiers look on in a village in Golestan district, Farah province, Afghanistan:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/5279303/Opium-harvest-in-Afghanistan.html

When the US government actively participates in heroin trafficking, it is not a crime. But when some ordinary person tries to make weed available to everyone, it is a horrendous crime.

Im not well informed about that opium deal, but i guess they cant interfere with other country's laws..
Regarding R.U. ; well look, its not like he was only selling (enabling the sale) of weed, there was a sh*tload of terrible stuff there.
Like i said, they skinned him alive as an example, and im pretty sure many people will back off from similar activity once they see what happened to him.

[rocoro]

You mistake the purpose of this life sentence. It's not to punish Ross Ulbricht, it's to intimidate all the other potential Ross Ulbrichts out there.

And it's not going to work, because the Silk Road was very useful and therefore very profitable. In capitalism profit finds a way to be made, just as water always finds a way downhill.

The TOR is not anonymous anymore. A large number of the TOR relays are controlled by the CIA, which helps them to identify the darknet users. So, until a new anonymization method is found, not many are going to follow Ross's lead. That means that the authorities have achieved a temporary success. But eventually, a new method will be found and the CIA / FBI won't be able to do anything about it. And then, people like Ross Ulbricht and Blake Benthall will be revered as heroes, who stood up against the system.

You should look into I2P and already permanent, working decentralized anonymous markets like SlingRoad.

[newflesh]

Ross Ullbricht sent to life in prison (without parole) for putting up a marketplace, where people could purchase drugs. OK. Got that. Now you judge what should be the quantum of punishment to be given to these guys:

An Afghan man harvests opium in a poppy field while US soldiers look on in a village in Golestan district, Farah province, Afghanistan:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/5279303/Opium-harvest-in-Afghanistan.html

When the US government actively participates in heroin trafficking, it is not a crime. But when some ordinary person tries to make weed available to everyone, it is a horrendous crime.

Not only that, opium harvests in Afghanistan have been getting larger year after year under US occupation, it's now at an all time high:

Opium cultivation has risen 7% year on year to 224,000 hectares, and production in 2014 may reach 6,400 tonnes – a 17% increase – according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/12/afghan-opium-crop-record-high-united-nations

What's even more embarrassing is is that the local opium economy employs more people (over 400,000) than the Afghan national security forces. Even the UK ambassador has come out endorsing its legalisation:

"If we cannot deal effectively with supply, then the only alternative would seem to be to try to limit the demand for illicit drugs by making a supply of them available from a legally regulated market."

So in other words, they need marketplaces like SilkRoad...

[WhatTheGox]

Finally, the wrong deeds were given the right punishment as such a guy who ruined lives of people selling drugs, has his own life ruined forever now...

We cant run a nanny state as it is expensive for society.  Bitcoin itself is partly designed so the person takes control of the security of his/her money so society can benefit from not having to take responsibility.  It sucks that anyone should even bother taking stuff like heroine but once they;d made that choice we'd be better off treating it as a health issue.  We are just creating more violence and black markets making drugs criminal.

[Beliathon]

In the end he knew about the strict drug laws in the US and he still broke it.

“The strategic adversary is fascism... the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.”

― Michel Foucault

[bryant.coleman]

Im not well informed about that opium deal, but i guess they cant interfere with other country's laws..

The Taliban had eradicated the cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan. However, this was re-introduced by the NATO troops, who overthrew the Taliban regime. The Russian agencies are claiming that NATO is even sponsoring fertilizer and pesticides for the poppy fields. So the Afghan opium has nothing to do with respecting local laws and customs.

You should look into I2P and already permanent, working decentralized anonymous markets like SlingRoad. 

Please tell me whether I2P is 100% anonymous or not. If it can be compromised like TOR, then there is no use in installing it.

[btcxyzzz]

When the US government actively participates in heroin trafficking, it is not a crime. But when some ordinary person tries to make weed available to everyone, it is a horrendous crime.

Everything told in just one sentence... That's the essence of a problem.

[Finchy]

I agree with the unjustice in most, if not all drug laws, but that is another level of discussion. There is already a ongoing political debate in Europe about the cannabis laws for example, which might lead to the legality of cannabis in a few years.

Maybe one or two countries may legalize it or decriminalize it but it'll be a long-time before countries like the UK or Germany do. All the major parties of the UK gov are against legalization for some reason as far as I'm aware.

Ross Ullbricht sent to life in prison (without parole) for putting up a marketplace, where people could purchase drugs. OK. Got that. Now you judge what should be the quantum of punishment to be given to these guys:

An Afghan man harvests opium in a poppy field while US soldiers look on in a village in Golestan district, Farah province, Afghanistan:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/5279303/Opium-harvest-in-Afghanistan.html

When the US government actively participates in heroin trafficking, it is not a crime. But when some ordinary person tries to make weed available to everyone, it is a horrendous crime.

IF they destroyed the crops they would take away the farmers livelihoods, which is something they didn't want to do. Is opium even illegal in Afghanistan? Also don't forget that Morphine and Codeine also come from those poppies.

[btcxyzzz]

IF they destroyed the crops they would take away the farmers livelihoods, which is something they didn't want to do. Is opium even illegal in Afghanistan? Also don't forget that Morphine and Codeine also come from those poppies.

Hey bud, you need serious reality check.

[QuestionAuthority]

IF they destroyed the crops they would take away the farmers livelihoods, which is something they didn't want to do. Is opium even illegal in Afghanistan? Also don't forget that Morphine and Codeine also come from those poppies.

Hey bud, you need serious reality check.

LOL I was thinking the same thing.

You want a couple of farmers to survive at the expense of thousands of overdosed drug users worldwide! ROFL