Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison

[matty223]

you can kill someone here in the US and get less time in prison then this,, what a joke,

[Uncle Ron]

He thought he was invincible, beyond the reach of law enforcement. He also thought the internet would provide him with anonymity.
He was asking to be released in 20 years, so he could enjoy the sunset years of his life in freedom. Meh, he'll get plenty of sunsets behind bars.
When one plays with fire, they eventually get burned. He knew the risks, the repercussions if caught. Now is the time to shut it, and take it like a man.
and Zippy

[tot ziens]

you can kill someone here in the US and get less time in prison then this,, what a joke,

How many people died from overdosing on hard drugs with sketchy origins? He knew what he was getting into.

[redeyezman]

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Disposable drug lords are a dime a dozen. How else to you purpose an empire fund proxy wars? Can't really put those on the accountant's books. Wouldn't be much anonymity in that.

[OneHighMofo]

I don't believe for a second that Ulbricht was 'in it for the money'. It takes an inordinate amount of time to sell just one Bitcoin for cash; it would have taken an army of men a lifetime to turn the amount seized from Silkroad into usable untraceable funds.

Being an 'online' guy…. I was aware of Silkroad early on and watched this guys progress from day one, I read all of his posts on the SR forum pretty much - In my opinion his now obvious appalling operational security is the only thing this guy did wrong. His Libertarian values ran deeply - no-one can fake that kind of knowledge and passion. He cared about your freedom, your liberty, your right to choose. And he was VERY vocal about the fact that he cared enough to put his own freedom on the line to protect yours.

He definitely knew that he'd get caught in the end - he talked about it often enough.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenbe ... bertarian/

Given the fact that some of the law enforcement officers involved in the case have been shown to be deeply corrupt http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/ ... d-bridges/; I'm not at all convinced by the veracity of the claims about the 'hits' he apparently commissioned, note that he wasn't charged with any violence related indictments but the mainstream media was alight with stories about the assassins and hit men set in motion by Ulbricht at the start of the case - just enough to set public opinion before the 'real' charges were brought and seal the idea of Ulbricht as a criminal mastermind.

I firmly believe that this young man is one of the political heroes of a generation.
He stood up for his beliefs and gave his life to his cause. I doff my cap to the lad. He might be a naive idealist, but very rarely do people stand up to be counted the way he did.

In my book that deserves respect.

I find it hugely disappointing that the 'standard narrative' of the mainstream media's opinion of Ulbricht is rife - even amongst those communities that Ulbricht himself felt so strongly about empowering. That he was 'just another drug dealer / kingpin'. It's a myopic and cleverly manufactured viewpoint that given a little bit of information is easy to rebut.

[tot ziens]

Just another scumbag hard drug dealer who will get what he deserves. He didn't give a fuck where the poison went, who it killed, and how many families it could have destroyed.

[OneHighMofo]

Just another scumbag hard drug dealer who will get what he deserves. He didn't give a fuck where the poison went, who it killed, and how many families it could have destroyed.

So you believe that you have a right to take your drug of choice - but people who choose 'hard' drugs should have their choices curbed by a prohibition?
Nice to see you being so open minded there Tot zien,… You're really living up to the sentiment suggested by your name there pal.

Never has the phrase 'scratch a hippy - find a fascist' been so true.

[redeyezman]

Read today that 2 govmint criminals plead guilty to charges of stealing bitcoins during the investigation of this.