Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road sentenced to life in prison

Lem posted about this twice, October 2013 and January 2015. The verdict is in and the conviction is for all seven counts and the sentence is the harshest possible. Murders such as Jordan Van Der Sloot get less in 3rd world countries than Ulbricht received in the United States. The conviction is made by a jury, the sentence is delivered by a judge. This judge was particularly not taken with Ross Ulbricht's defense. Citing the six deaths related to drugs purchased through his site she told Ross he didn't differ from any other criminal although he does not fit the profile for one, he is still no better than any other drug dealer.

Drug broker.

Judge Forest said the harsh sentence is necessary to show others that may follow that there are very serious consequences.

Make an example.

Commenters on Twitter are 100% against the case, the conviction, the ruling, the sentence. The page is endless.

It is a jealous god, government. It brooks no other deities. It does not like artificial scrip in place of its own artificial scrip, it brooks no commerce within its space that it does not regulate or tax.

It wasn't a web site for drugs, it was a web site for anything black market, drugs being the largest category. His own emails are damning indeed. He was paying $50,000 a week to hackers who threatened to take down his site. Cherubic and attractive and as privilege-y Puritanically white and sweetly gay as he appears, he still contracted for the murder of people who threatened his Silk Road, one of them being a federal agent.

But the agencies have their own problems with the case. Agents for both the DHS and the Secret Service are also indicted for embezzling bitcoins related to this case.

Judge Forest has a point. Sweeping away Silk Road cleared the way for its competitors, not following in Ulbricht's footsteps, rather, already there and already competing, ready to fill the void. Not a dent is made in demand nor in supply and if its imagined that violence is reduced then that would be wrong.

Probably not the best way to present this data but you get the idea.

The items that were sold across Silk Road are outrageous. Once you flip through and see all the drugs, serious drugs, and all the rest of the things entered as evidence then you start thinking maybe shutting it down is not such a bad idea.

Silk Road homepage.

Marijuana was the biggest drug by far. Firearms and hacking kits are problem.

Beyond Ross Ulbricht, a Map of Dark Net Arrests Around the World. Click on a circle on the interactive map and details of the case open. You can see why authorities want to shut down Silk Road and all others like it.