Silk road founder sentenced

[Afrospinach]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...on-for-life/1/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...ife-in-prison/

A little more on the judges sentencing:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...its-authority/

I am not finding a lot of sympathy, seems a lot like a case of sorry I got caught, not sorry I did it. He will die in jail unless he wins an appeal.

I do believe this also sets a precedent for these types of cases.

Thoughts?

[AeneasBK]

Not convinced that a) this will change anything b) he was wholly responsible c) this is anything other than misguided attempt at publicity "Hey look, its worth us snooping so much look at the dangerous criminal we caught!"

[Deleted]

Meh. There are worse black market sites out there, this one at least prohibited the sale of weapons and child pornography. I've seen human traffickers get lower sentences.

[Independent voter]

Sentenced to life in prison!

In all fairness he did try to contract with assassins to kill some people he didn't like.

[Afrospinach]

Sentenced to life in prison!

In all fairness he did try to contract with assassins to kill some people he didn't like.

That does not appear to be in any part of his sentencing oddly enough. It looks like he was actually a victim of a scam where the target and the "assassin" may have been the same person/group of people. It seems to be more of a character reference in the case because there is no attempted murder charge or whatever they would call that.

Shouldn't run such project unless you're constantly traveling or do it from a villa in South-East Asia or South America with your own private guards.

Somehow he thought he was running a service for the good of the people or some such. There are a lot of overtones here that remind me of Al Capone.

[Lysah]

If that's a crime, then lock me up.

Seriously, that's ridiculous. Sure, it's a bit illegal but can any one of us here say we haven't done the same at least once in our lives?

I believe we agreed not to talk about my work with anyone.

[Deleted]

But where are people supposed to get their drugs from, if not online?

[ringpriest]

Set up an online marketplace that caters to drug dealers and handled as much as a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency transactions? Life in prison.

Run one of several giant banks that launders over a billion for drug cartels, while illegally dealing with some of the worst governments on the planet (Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba)? Fines and deferred prosecution.

It's clear what Ross Ulbricht's real crime is: not being a giant bank - and it's also clear that the US doesn't have a "Justice" system, so much as a "protect the establishment" system. (But what else should we expect from a corrupt plutocracy?)

[Dsonsion]

Shouldn't run such project unless you're constantly traveling or do it from a villa in South-East Asia or South America with your own private guards.

This man knows how such a deal should roll. Ulbricht was pretty amateurish.

[Conspicuous Cultist]

I guess Dread Pirate Roberts is going to get keelhauled now.

[Norjak]

Set up an online marketplace that caters to drug dealers and handled as much as a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency transactions? Life in prison.

Run one of several giant banks that launders over a billion for drug cartels, while illegally dealing with some of the worst governments on the planet (Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba)? Fines and deferred prosecution.

It's clear what Ross Ulbricht's real crime is: not being a giant bank - and it's also clear that the US doesn't have a "Justice" system, so much as a "protect the establishment" system. (But what else should we expect from a corrupt plutocracy?)

But remember, "corporations are people too."

[Jamie71]

Brilliant news, i wish in the UK we would sentence drug dealers to life in prison, or just do as the Thai and Indonesians do and shoot them.

[Ryme]

He's an idiot for getting caught, seriously, so stupid. It does nothing as well, Silk Road 2 was up within a week of the previous going down.

[StayTuned]

If that's a crime, then lock me up.

Seriously, that's ridiculous. Sure, it's a bit illegal but can any one of us here say we haven't done the same at least once in our lives?

Tried to contact assassins to kill people? No?

Also that's totally illegal, not just a bit...

[greeeed]

Tried to contact assassins to kill people? No?

Also that's totally illegal, not just a bit...

Not for gov.
(And I am sure it was sarcasm joke)

[Wingwraith]

It's clear what Ross Ulbricht's real crime is: not being a giant bank - and it's also clear that the US doesn't have a "Justice" system, so much as a "protect the establishment" system. (But what else should we expect from a corrupt plutocracy?)

This right here.

[Pipebomb]

Weren't federal agents indicted too? Didn't the government have control of the servers for up to half a year? They chose not to shut it down and were also responsible for two overdose deaths during that time.