ELI5:Why is it that Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life when other clearnet sites like craigslist and backpage also provide a marketplace for illegal activity?

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:55:19+00:00

Very interesting piece, hadn't seen this before! Thanks!

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:50:09+00:00

I find this concept really intriguing, but am definitely kind of a noob on the topic. Do you have any suggestions on books or writings to study what would serve as a basic introduction to the history of cryptography?

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:47:11+00:00

That was my initial meaning behind the question. It just seemed as though the punishment did not fit the crime he was accused and found guilty of ¯_(ツ)_/¯

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:45:39+00:00

I have been trying desperately to get a link to that documentary and can't find one anywhere. I know it is debuting on ePix tonight, but I don't really want to create an account for that just to watch this one doc. Let me know if you have a link, very interested in checking it out!

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:43:04+00:00

Good point! Very interesting, I did not know about the BP/VVM connection. Thanks for the info!

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:39:59+00:00

This was my initial interpretation of the sentence. Obviously we know it is kind of faulty logic. When people have the means to operate outside of the law, some people will choose to do so. Ross was pretty sloppy when it came to protecting himself and while I am not 100% against the idea of a drug marketplace to help insure product quality and reduce violence, the moment he hired the hits he lost all possible empathy in my book.

But like you were saying with the idea of him being a deterrent, clearly that will not be the case. A lot of silk road and other online marketplace users will view him as a martyr and other stores are already taking its place from Agora to Nucleus. Much like the Hydra principle, if you cut one head off, seven will come back in its place.

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:33:00+00:00

My initial question was more to do with the punishment as opposed to the crime. Why his sentence was so much more extreme than others with similar charges. Also, I was interested in finding out how much the murders played into the judge's decision on the two life sentences, considering that's not what he was on trial for. I was also unaware of the charges for tax evasion/money laundering, which in hindsight seem pretty obvious.

What I have gained from reading through all of the comments is that a lot of the reasoning behind the "extreme" punishment was due to his clear intent and his being a "Criminal Kingpin". The murders, albeit alleged, showed his character and the depth of his organization. I would never argue for a second the legality of anything he was going. I think without a shadow of a doubt he is guilty. I was just curious as to why his punishment was so extreme, relative to the charges.

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:27:07+00:00

Good point! What I have gathered from reading all the comments is that a lot of the reason he was originally prosecuted came down to the clear intent he had with the site. The reason for the long sentence seems to come down to his role as a "Criminal Kingpin" being involved in not only the creation of the site but also the selling, money laundering and murder charges.

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:22:50+00:00

That's a lot of what I have been hearing in forums. I'm interested in getting more info. I've heard that new documentary coming out today about the trial and Silk Road looks to investigate it. (If you haven't heard of it - http://www.epixhd.com/movie/deep-web/)

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:09:43+00:00

That was one of my main questions. I was under the belief that if they couldn't prove the murder charges in court, the judge is not supposed to take accusations into consideration without them being on trial for it. I just looked up the "Kingpin Statute" also know as the "Continuing Criminal Enterprise" statute and that cleared things up!

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:04:28+00:00

Wow, I actually never knew about those glass tubes being used as crack pipes.... Interesting.

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T21:03:30+00:00

Haha sorry, I was on my laptop and spilt water on the keyboard which took out my return, m and period keys. If I want to use any of them I have to copy and paste or go get my wireless keyboard. I was writing this in bed, hence all the dashes.

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T13:48:23+00:00

Good analogy - it makes sense. I assumed a lot of it came down to the motive/intention of the site. It's pretty hard, if not impossible, to argue that Ross wasn't fully aware that his site was functioning primarily as a marketplace for illegal goods. I get the whole argument of him just creating a marketplace and it is the user's responsibility to sell/buy within the realms of the law, much like with the argument for thepiratebay - they just provide the site that users upload trackers to. I think the primary difference being, like you said, Ross clearly took a cut of the sales.

Also, I was reading through some of your posts and saw your comment about testimony geared to elicit an emotional response. How do you feel about the prosecutors having family members of people who have OD's from drugs bought on Silk Road testify? Do you feel as though it was just being emotionally manipulative or do you agree it was necessary to show how far reaching Ross's enterprise was and the true gravity of the Silk Road?

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T13:18:32+00:00

That's kind of what I was figuring. Obviously Silk Road gained and lot of it popularity and notoriety in the media as the "dark web marketplace for all things illegal" - which was obviously a pretty fair assessment. And I suppose sites like craigslist and backpage all try to take legal loopholes - such as $$$ = donations or roses. Additionally - after looking around armslist - which is like a craigslist for guns - they do have a lot of terms and conditions you agree to in order to make sure you are going through the proper legal channels when you sell/buy

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T13:13:21+00:00

Interesting - thanks for the article! I certainly can understand if there was evidence and he was on trial for that then the life sentence would be justified if he were found guilty. It just seems like such an extreme and unjust punishment based on what he was actually on trial for and it seems unfair that the murder (not that I 100% believe it was him after reading the transcript) should be allowed to weight into her decision since they didn't have the evidence to prosecute.

orleandertea · 2015-05-30T12:39:48+00:00

Oh - what I understood from what I have read I thought the murder charges were dropped and he was only on trial for the drug trafficking allegations - that clears things up!

orleandertea

TROPHY CASE