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Topic: Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if..... (Read 1410 times)

hero member
Activity: 700
Merit: 500
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?

Let's say he operated Silk Road as a free service and probably "unmonitored" with a disclaimer that he is not liable for what goes on.

So would he be still facing jail time?

He still could be charged since he arranged a murder order
That said as an operator of a drug site he would have been charged commission or not.
sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 250
Well of course he would lol Shocked At least I guess so , he is operating and managing website that sells drugs and weapons etc ... that's against the law , beside i would like to know , they seized all his Bitcoins ? or he was able to keep some hidden ? brain wallet or whatever

I don't know if my posts are invisible to some members, but here it goes again:

Quote
It seems to me that many members seem to skip the part where I wrote: the site is unmonitored and a disclaimer is there that Ross takes no responsibility.

Consider this: A deep web website or even bulleting board that is free and open for everyone to use and is completely unmonitored.
That means that IF you choose to trade there you take responsibility for YOUR OWN ACTIONS.
sr. member
Activity: 280
Merit: 250
Well of course he would lol Shocked At least I guess so , he is operating and managing website that sells drugs and weapons etc ... that's against the law , beside i would like to know , they seized all his Bitcoins ? or he was able to keep some hidden ? brain wallet or whatever
sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 250
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act

AFAIK, Craigslist charges prostitutes in jurisdictions where prostitution is illegal, to post in Erotic Services. And narcotics are freely traded on Craigslist without posting fees. And any number of other victimless and victimful/actual crimes are committed on Craigslist.

I look forward to the victimless "criminal" Craig Newmark spending the rest of his life in prison also in violation of Sec 230. Oh wait, Craigslist only accepts fiat, so he's immune, unlike that filthy libertarian bitcoin bastard, Ross Ulbricht.

Is that true about Craigslist?
Is there really "illegal" listings?
And if there are, why is he not facing charges as well?
sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 250
By managing the site, Ulbright would be an accomplice in drug dealing as he both allows it to happen on his own site and knows that illegal activity is occuring. Thus, he would still get jail time, but probably less than he will get now.

It seems to me that many members seem to skip the part where I wrote: the site is unmonitored and a disclaimer is there that Ross takes no responsibility.
sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 250
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?
He would, just managing such site is punishable by law

I think you missed the part where I said he would have it unmonitored with a disclaimer that he is not liable for anything traded there.
So, basically he does not accept responsibility and everybody that trades there should accept responsibility for their actions.
sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 250
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?

Let's say he operated Silk Road as a free service and probably "unmonitored" with a disclaimer that he is not liable for what goes on.

So would he be still facing jail time?

Funny you mention this because the first version of the bitcoin client even had unused traces of code for running a trading site. Pretty amazing actually.

When you say unused, you mean that the client was coded with an in-build trading site but was never used?
Why?
hero member
Activity: 952
Merit: 513
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?

Let's say he operated Silk Road as a free service and probably "unmonitored" with a disclaimer that he is not liable for what goes on.

So would he be still facing jail time?

Funny you mention this because the first version of the bitcoin client even had unused traces of code for running a trading site. Pretty amazing actually.

That's interesting, I haven't heard of that before.
Do you have any links to that?
The code maybe?
sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 250
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?

Let's say he operated Silk Road as a free service and probably "unmonitored" with a disclaimer that he is not liable for what goes on.

So would he be still facing jail time?

Good point! Now what if he simply had made a decentralized market and left it alone like Satoshi abandoned Bitcoin? Would he be responsible for every drug that is traded there?

That is exactly why I am asking.
If he didn't profit from Silk Road at all, and made it clear that it is a free service that one should use at their own risk and responsibility, then what were they going to charge him with?
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
I believe while he is under the country law they would have found a number of charges for him, if not the same as he currently has. Got me thinking what if he ran the site as normal from international waters on a nice boat away from their laws would he face jail, now that would be one to look into if you wanted to be kingpin. The horrible thing he must be thinking in his cell is he could have walked with millions and just gave the site to someone he trusted like the number 1 seller for all the time he was there and cut a deal ya know. Alls well that ends well, now he has nothing except a friend in prison named big bob.
legendary
Activity: 3010
Merit: 1031
RIP Mommy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act

AFAIK, Craigslist charges prostitutes in jurisdictions where prostitution is illegal, to post in Erotic Services. And narcotics are freely traded on Craigslist without posting fees. And any number of other victimless and victimful/actual crimes are committed on Craigslist.

I look forward to the victimless "criminal" Craig Newmark spending the rest of his life in prison also in violation of Sec 230. Oh wait, Craigslist only accepts fiat, so he's immune, unlike that filthy libertarian bitcoin bastard, Ross Ulbricht.
legendary
Activity: 1120
Merit: 1000
In that case he would still be permitting an illegal trasaction, but who knows what would had happened
staff
Activity: 3374
Merit: 6530
Just writing some code
By managing the site, Ulbright would be an accomplice in drug dealing as he both allows it to happen on his own site and knows that illegal activity is occuring. Thus, he would still get jail time, but probably less than he will get now.
full member
Activity: 184
Merit: 100
Bitcoin FTW!
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?
He would, just managing such site is punishable by law
sr. member
Activity: 338
Merit: 250
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?

Let's say he operated Silk Road as a free service and probably "unmonitored" with a disclaimer that he is not liable for what goes on.

So would he be still facing jail time?

Good point! Now what if he simply had made a decentralized market and left it alone like Satoshi abandoned Bitcoin? Would he be responsible for every drug that is traded there?

Well we'll soon see what happens to decentralized markets soon enough as there's a few of them being worked on right now as we speak. They'll probably run similar to torrents but over tor. With no central authority and everyone just running the program there's nothing they could really do about it. Exciting times but hopefully it'll make them change their archaic drug laws so we wont need to do this sort of thing just to buy drugs.
newbie
Activity: 50
Merit: 0
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?

Let's say he operated Silk Road as a free service and probably "unmonitored" with a disclaimer that he is not liable for what goes on.

So would he be still facing jail time?

Funny you mention this because the first version of the bitcoin client even had unused traces of code for running a trading site. Pretty amazing actually.
AGD
legendary
Activity: 2070
Merit: 1164
Keeper of the Private Key
Would Ross Ulbright be facing jail time if he didn't charge ANY fees at all?

Let's say he operated Silk Road as a free service and probably "unmonitored" with a disclaimer that he is not liable for what goes on.

So would he be still facing jail time?

Good point! Now what if he simply had made a decentralized market and left it alone like Satoshi abandoned Bitcoin? Would he be responsible for every drug that is traded there?
sr. member
Activity: 338
Merit: 250
I got a better "what if". What if Ross decided to relocate to a more favorable country after he made his first million instead of running it from inside the jaws of the lion? Would SR still be in operation today?  What if he duplicated his servers over five continents and relocated himself every six months? Would it ever be possible to catch him (not that running a major drug distribution network using the free wifi at a San Francisco public library wasn't a good idea too)? lol

Exactly. I'd really love to see how they'd tackle a person who was holed up in a country where the US wasn't on good terms with and had no extradition process. People running these darknet markets need to be so paranoid with their security and double check everything to make sure they're covered because it's always silly mistakes that get them caught. If they used all the precautions and didn't screw up I believe they could operate these sites without getting caught or at the very least avoid getting arrested and shipped back to the us for a trial. Even if your site gets taken down if you're in the middle of nowhere when the site goes down you'll hopefully be safe.
legendary
Activity: 2156
Merit: 1393
You lead and I'll watch you walk away.
I got a better "what if". What if Ross decided to relocate to a more favorable country after he made his first million instead of running it from inside the jaws of the lion? Would SR still be in operation today?  What if he duplicated his servers over five continents and relocated himself every six months? Would it ever be possible to catch him (not that running a major drug distribution network using the free wifi at a San Francisco public library wasn't a good idea too)? lol

That was probably his biggest mistake.
Then comes all the other mistakes he did.

However, do you think any other country would be better though?
I mean the Silk Road was an international black market,
so I can't think of any country that wouldn't take action against it.

I doubt they'd find him in Somalia, central Columbia, Cuba, Hong Kong, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Western Sahara, Bhutan or many other places worldwide. Can you think of a country that would be worse than the USA? I'd rather be rich in a shithole like Somalia with my own private army than ass raped in a U.S. Prison.
sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 250
Amercia must stick it's nose in EVERYTHING.. yes he would be.

Of course they would.
After all he was running his black market operation from within the U.S.
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