Silk Road

[CliffordM]

Is there any jurisdiction in which it's illegal to access the Silk Road?

[1714127852]

1714127852

[Sock Puppet]

Certainly.  Speech isn't free everywhere.

Where are you?

[CliffordM]

United Kingdom -- reasonably free here (most of the time!) I think...

[TheHarbinger]

The nifty thing about Silk Road is that it can only be accessed through the Tor network.  While it doesn't make tracking your IP/Location impossible, it sure makes it a hell of a lot lot harder (and more expensive) than most authorities are willing to deal with to bust someone over.

[P4man]

In most countries accessing the site wouldnt be illegal. Purchasing and owning what you typically buy there,  probably is tho.

[steak-knife]

I've never heard of anyone being arrested in the UK for only looking at a drug dealer. I presume looking at Silk Road is perfectly legal if you're not buying anything.

[Biggin92]

It doesn't seem to me like it would be a problem at all. The way the tor network is designed is pretty brilliant. Just recently stumbled upon it myself, was pretty impressed.

[badger4life]

So as far as computer applications go, just using Silk Road is reasonably safe?  Any hacking issues that someone needs to worry about just from installing the software?

[P4man]

You dont install any "silk road" software. All you need is tor (/vidalia/torbutton). These apps are all opensource and in that sense, perfectly safe.

[badger4life]

Anyone ever use the tor functionality in Vuse?  Is it straight forward or are there other suggestions for a client?

[P4man]

No idea about vuse, just use the official client:
https://www.torproject.org/

Feel free to download one of the bundles which comes with its own firefox browser for tor, or download tor, vidalia (GUI interface for Tor) and the torbutton extension and use your existing firefox and toggle with that button between regular and tor browsing. You can find it all on that site.

[badger4life]

Thanks for the info P4man. 

Not too sure that I have a use for installing a client, but it might be worth it just to see what it's like.  It's still a very abstract thing in my mind right now.  Until I see what the client interface and "silk road" network look like all I can think of is a web browser on the internet.  I get that the internet is what's used and different clients can have different looks to them (I assume so anyway), but I wonder things like... is there a way to search for stuff and can you link in and out of normal network sites...?

[P4man]

Thanks for the info P4man. 

Not too sure that I have a use for installing a client, but it might be worth it just to see what it's like.  It's still a very abstract thing in my mind right now.  Until I see what the client interface and "silk road" network look like all I can think of is a web browser on the internet. 

Thats precisely what it is. I only visited it for the first yesterday as I was curious myself. its just a (very, very basic) website. After you installed tor and torbutton, it opens -rather slowly- in your browser, just like any other website, it just has a weird looking address.

I get that the internet is what's used and different clients can have different looks to them (I assume so anyway), but I wonder things like... is there a way to search for stuff and can you link in and out of normal network sites...?

Sure you can link. But you can only access silk road if you have Tor running and your webbrowser is configured for tor (ie, you pressed the TorButton). In that mode you can visit any other website you want, but traffic will be routed over tor, meaning its slow and anonymous. But otherwise its the same internet you browse every day.

[bitwiser]

Is there any jurisdiction in which it's illegal to access the Silk Road?

Whilst accessing the site itself isn't likely to be an offence, buying some of the goods on there definitely
is of course. As far as I'm aware, no country has yet made an offence to actually access the website,
but that might happen before long if the powers-that-be are unable to find ways to close it down.

[fivebells]

...it might be worth it just to see what it's like.

 Definitely worth the trouble to take a look.  It is like stumbling into the marketplace in a Hollywood libertarian dystopia.  Oh, and don't forget to take a look at the forum there.

[TiagoTiago]

Btw, keep in mind that with TOR, when you access regular websites (or anything else in the internet) the exit nodes can see pretty much the exactly same thing someone with a device between your computer and the internet cable in the wall can.

[P4man]

Which is not very different than without tor, except that the exit nodes are tor users, rather than companies/ISPs or possibly hackers listening in. If you dont use HTTPS or other encryption, consider everything you browse and send public, with or without tor. All tor does is anonymise.

[TiagoTiago]

It only anonymises the source IP, anything else is kept as anonymous or unanonymous as without TOR.

[P4man]

It only anonymises the source IP, anything else is kept as anonymous or unanonymous as without TOR.

And so  it "only" anonymises  you as a user. And yes people should be aware its not a substitute for encryption to prevent eavesdropping, thats no different than when not using tor, but tor does exactly what it claims to do: hide your identity (not your traffic).

[TiagoTiago]

It doesn't hide your identity if it is revealed thru your traffic.