This is not very surprising/interesting, but I thought I'd mention that I received a subpoena for information related to Ross Ulbricht's alleged forum account
altoid. I mostly just compiled some publicly-available information. The only non-public data I had to include were some deleted posts in the
heroin store topic that were not written by DPR and probably won't be useful in the case.
You might be surprised to learn that this is the first subpoena I've received for the forum.
This is amazing hypocrisy. While investors were scammed all year long with scam after scam (Altcoins were turning scam >2 weekly in August, eg USBCoin) there was not a single fucking peep from anyone in the manner where it would be proactive in stopping that plague. The Altcoin scams were
self-moderated and the only change was mining pool advertising. This is the same forum where
a thread saying "I'm starting a Ponzi scheme, who's interested in getting on board?" doesn't cause anyone to bat an eyelid (let alone raise a mouse finger to lock/hide/delete the post).
But now the FBI sends you a letter, and you're suddenly able to be
the good guy being proactive? If not before why now? Antruk will answer that...
I'd say it sets a good precedent. It's nice to know when justice is happening, even if we don't know why in this case.
Even though this is a private forum, it still has to obey laws. I find that comforting.
Yep, hit the nail on the head. It does set a good precedent. A precedent where the admin and mods have clearly got the ability to stem the flow of bad actors but choose not to.
Unless of course it plays into their favor; if the price of Bitcoin is affected or there's brownie points that need winning, well, that libertarian "right to free speech, privacy (and, oh,
freedom) can be put aside to set good precedent. It makes my fucking skin crawl.
Why am I defending this scum, this drug kingpin? Because he's neither. Yet. (And no, I don't even drink or do weed)
DPR has not been proven to be Ross Ulbricht. He is innocent until proven guilty.\
The defence team has no chance; the FBI will do all it takes to convict Ross and do so with extreme prejudice. You're helping the FBI on what (in their words) "an open and shut case".
Do the right thing and offer every and any assistance to Ross' legal team.
Perhaps the good precedent to set can be that there's some type of selflessness at some stage.