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Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Sentenced To Life In Prison

An anonymous reader sends an update on the trial of Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the Silk Road online black market. Sentencing is now complete, and Ulbricht has been given life in prison. He had been facing a 20-year minimum because of the charge of being a "drug kingpin," and prosecutors were asking for a sentence substantially higher than the minimum. Prior to the sentence being handed down today, Ulbricht spoke before the court for 20 minutes, asking for leniency and for the judge to leave him a "light at the end of the tunnel." The judge was unswayed, giving Ulbricht the most severe sentence possible. She said, "The stated purpose [of the silk road] was to be beyond the law. ... Silk Road's birth and presence asserted that its creator was better than the laws of this country. This is deeply troubling, terribly misguided, and very dangerous." Ulbricht's family plans to appeal.

363 comments

  1. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Selling drugs and weapons are serious crimes and should be justly punished. Propz to GNAA

    1. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Selling drugs and weapons are only serious crimes if you're not the government.

      Oh? You forgot for a minute that the CIA's major money maker is dealing illegal drugs? You even forgot about them selling weapons to or otherwise directly arming dangerous criminals involved in the drug trade? I mean, it's not like Sinaloa, the largest and most powerful drug cartel in the US and Mexico, was put in power directly because of the Drug Enforcement Agencies support, right?

    2. Re:Good by LoyalOpposition · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Selling drugs and weapons are serious crimes and should be justly punished.

      Unless it's Caspar Weinberger or Eric Holder. Then it's totally legit.

      ~Loyal

      --
      I aim to misbehave.
    3. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oh? You forgot for a minute that the CIA's major money maker is dealing illegal drugs? You even forgot about them selling weapons to or otherwise directly arming dangerous criminals involved in the drug trade?...

      That was certainly true in the '80s (The CIA selling drugs, and selling weapons to Iran terrorists, was the "Iran Contra" scandal, although the CIA's drug selling was probably the least imporant part of the scandal)
      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/reagan-iran/
      http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/iran.htm

      But that was 25 years ago. Not sure whether there's evidence it's going on now.

    4. Re:Good by execthis · · Score: 1

      Now they go down to Columbia and throw elaborate sex parties for the drug kingpins. All paid for by the American taxpayer.

    5. Re:Good by Pubstar · · Score: 1

      Fast and Furious.

  2. An example by skovnymfe · · Score: 1

    He's the first. They're making an example of him to scare the rest of the plebs. It will not work. Nothing to see here. Move along.

    1. Re:An example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Do you believe he was treated differently then any other kingpin?

    2. Re:An example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you saying that he was innocent, or that what he was doing should be legal ?

    3. Re:An example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, but maybe he shouldn't have received life?

    4. Re:An example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His sentence: As many years until the laws turn around and people saw that he was a criminal, but not some sort of monster worthy of life in prison.

    5. Re:An example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      He most certainly was treated differently from other kingpins; the bribe he waved at the judge wasn't nearly big enough, apparently, and his efforts to taint the jury appear to have been entirely ineffective. If he had been a real drug kingpin, he would have walked.

    6. Re:An example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It will not work

      Don't be so sure. America locks up more people than any other country and about as much as the rest of the world combined and for much longer sentences. Serving life without parole for non-violent drug offenses is frightfully common here in America and it's made worse by the private prison companies, who need full beds for maximum profits, and the huge industry that has grown around the war on drugs and has a billion dollar stake in seeing that war continue indefinitely. This absolutely should be a lesson for all young and naive American youth, particularly those with misguided leftist views. Dealing with drugs is no joke in America and the days of "second chances" are over. Hell, even an arrest record anymore can be enough to lock you out of whatever decent jobs you might have gotten for the rest of your life. A felony conviction, even if you do get out of prison eventually, is effectively a lifetime sentence to poverty for most ordinary citizens.

    7. Re:An example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Silk Road was merely a platform to transact various types of exchanges yet deemed illegal due to the types of transactions its users executed, does this mean Craig's List is a criminal organisation too? Haven't we heard stories about Craig's List being used for the procurement of sexual services, murder-for-hire, buying and selling illegal products including drugs and firearms?

      Until politicians are arrested, charged and convicted when engaging in criminal activity such as in the company of an "escort", smoking marijuana, sniffing cocaine, driving under the influence of a substance, etc. there can be no justice system. Why do the wealthy get to break the law with little to no consequences from the judicial system? How the Hell does DHS allow Justin Bieber, a known drug user, reckless driver, and vandal, to remain in the US? I thought any crime was sufficient grounds for immediate deportation for the ordinary folk...oh right, "The Bieb" is not ordinary folk.

    8. Re:An example by TheCarp · · Score: 1

      Because this is not a nation of laws at all.

      In a nation of laws, would it be acceptable for spies to have secret talks with the so called "Justice" department and get the green light to torture people, in spite of the various laws against it? Would a nation of laws allow agreements like that? "Don't worry, we wont prosecute, you are working for us"

      A nation of laws might, change those laws, and legalize its spies using torture. Then it would be on the up and up. However, this country isn't that, and well.... turns out not just on that one issue.

      This just is not, and really never was, a nation of laws.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    9. Re:An example by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

      remember everything Hitler did was legal in Germany.

    10. Re:An example by KGIII · · Score: 1

      And has this worked?

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  3. outrageous by MrNJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All he did was facilitate transactions among consenting adults.
    Something is wrong with our country.

    --
    I don't respond to or upvote ACs
    1. Re:outrageous by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't know of any country on earth where heroin, methamphetamine etc. can be bought and sold freely among consenting adults. So you probably should say something is wrong with human society.

    2. Re:outrageous by tom229 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Considering this is a more severe punishment than the majority of rapists receive, something is very wrong indeed.

      --
      If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
    3. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are no more "consenting adults", only peons who must beg their masters for permission to do anything.

    4. Re:outrageous by EmeraldBot · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't know of any country on earth where heroin, methamphetamine etc. can be bought and sold freely among consenting adults. So you probably should say something is wrong with human society.

      I do. Portugal.

      --
      "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    5. Re:outrageous by timrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The article itself mentions that five of the attempts to hire a hitman were actually scams targeted at Ulbricht - it seems more like it was "hitmen" soliciting or trying to solicit him rather than him soliciting them. Given that, even the single supposed attempt by Ulbricht to hire a hitman sounds off - you would think that the prosecution would have charged him with something if they felt they could make it stick, which makes me wonder about entrapment in that case.

    6. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Weirdly there's no evidence of that claim, and the government decided not to try and prosecute for that. It's almost like they made that argument up to try and get him a more severe punishment than he deserved.

      This whole thing has been a travesty of justice anyway. Parallel construction, fabricated evidence, and a fall guy being thrown into prison for life to set an example for anyone who'd question law enforcement, this story has it all.

    7. Re:outrageous by Yosho · · Score: 1, Interesting

      All he did was facilitate transactions among consenting adults.

      From a moral standpoint, is somebody who is suffering from a severe physiological addition to a mind-altering drug truly capable of legal consent?

      --
      Karma: Terrifying (mostly affected by atrocities you've committed)
    8. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Posting Anon because I am Moding

      The fact that a child molester in Texas would get less time should say we have our priorities wrong.

    9. Re:outrageous by tool462 · · Score: 2, Informative

      If he wanted to do that, he should have started a bank. Those guys are too big to jail.

    10. Re:outrageous by jopsen · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't know of any country on earth where heroin, methamphetamine etc. can be bought and sold freely among consenting adults. So you probably should say something is wrong with human society.

      Still we're talking non-violent crimes... Compare this to the money laundering schemes many major American banks have been fined for... But in which no criminal persecution took place.

    11. Re:outrageous by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm sure someone mass marketing the rape of millions across the internet and attempting to have detractors killed would face a worse charge. The point was not the single crime but rather the mass-marketing and distribution of the crime.

    12. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Nope. Thus sex under the influence of mind-altering drugs is rape.

    13. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless their first use was involuntary than it should be (but probably inst in our current legal framework).

    14. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That was a last resort to curb the fact that otherwise, AK47's were being trafficked right along side the illegal drugs. So they made the drugs legal and came down hard on the organizations responsible. In no way does that imply that unrestricted free trade of all objects and substances is a good idea, or beneficial to anyone.

    15. Re:outrageous by Hussman32 · · Score: 2

      I've read the transcript that discusses his attempted hits, and it seems like he was supporting it. Whether it's enough to send him to prison for life, I'm not sure, IANAL, but he certainly wasn't innocent.

      That being said, as they didn't allow it in the trial, it shouldn't be brought up in sentencing.

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    16. Re:outrageous by bobbied · · Score: 2

      The problem with that little tidbit is that he's not been convicted of doing it... Until he is convicted of the crime (or admits to it as factual), it cannot affect the sentence handed down. So you cannot use that as justification for the sentence.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    17. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly too big to jail.

    18. Re:outrageous by donkwich · · Score: 1

      Do countries giving away free heroin to addicts count? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

    19. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      That was a last resort to curb the fact that otherwise, AK47's were being trafficked right along side the illegal drugs. So they made the drugs legal and came down hard on the organizations responsible. In no way does that imply that unrestricted free trade of all objects and substances is a good idea, or beneficial to anyone.

      As a Portuguese citizen, I call bullshit. The reason why personal consumption was decriminalised was due to physicians seeing that the war on drugs was causing drug use and HIV (due to contaminated syringes) to rise instead of lowering it.

      Since the decriminalisation in 2001 drug usage has actually dropped in Portugal.

    20. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken by someone who has no idea how it's actually working in Portugal. Thanks for demonstrating your complete ignorance and unwillingness to even pretend having spent an iota of time learning anything about the subject. Well done.

    21. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not quite true.

      The light touch on drug use was introduced mainly to minimise the spread of HIV amongst IV drug users in the country (with the financial and medical costs that this entailed).

      Portugal is a hell of a long way from any credible supply route for AK47s, being on the far end of Europe - if anyone wants illegal high powered rifles in Portugal, the most common option will be the G3. Or just pop over to the USA, where the Second Amendment is in force.

    22. Re:outrageous by aitikin · · Score: 0

      Still we're talking non-violent crimes... Compare this to the money laundering schemes many major American banks have been fined for... But in which no criminal persecution took place.

      So where does selling a fake passport to a murderer or a rapist come in on your scale of "non-violent crimes"? I'm not saying that the stupid regulations about the banks aren't as screwed up or moreso, I'm just saying that there's plenty of things going on beyond the sale of those drugs that seem to be the only thing anyone cares about.

      --
      "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
    23. Re:outrageous by Beerdood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, what's wrong with transactions among consenting adults!?!

      - I mean, if some corrupt African dictator wants to buy some weapons to wipe out the rioters, that's not my fault - all I did was facilitate the chemical weapons transaction.
      - If someone wanted to buy some slaves, and all I did was facilitate the transaction; not my fault.
      - CP getting bought and sold on my trading network? Whoa, not my fault, all i did was provide a medium for two consenting adults to make a transaction (involving non-consenting children).
      - Someone hired a hitman to kill a journalist that exposed your corruption using my transaction network? Look pal, it's not like I pulled the trigger. All I did was provide a medium/platform that made it much easier for you to complete your transaction. I'm sure that even without my transaction network around, the hitman would have been hired in the black market yellow pages.

      Ah, the old 'turn a blind eye' argument. Libertarianism at it's finest. Now it might be nice to be able to buy some drugs that the government says I shouldn't have. But I'd also like to not get murdered by posting dissenting opinions or becoming a whistleblower. And since you can't really have one without the other (don't get to choose what goes on your black market if you turn a blind eye), then I think I'll stick with not having this transaction platform exist at all for the betterment of humanity.

      --
      Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
    24. Re:outrageous by Curtman · · Score: 1

      Does this mean that eBay is responsible for those fake SD cards I got? I'm in.

    25. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a few rapes isn't a big deal. Got it.

    26. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      All of which is facilitated by the Internet.

      Lets round everyone at AT&T, Verison, Comcast, etc. up and arrest them.

    27. Re:outrageous by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      I'm sure someone mass marketing the rape of millions across the internet ...

      Rape involves non-consenting victims. In fact, it is the lack of consent that makes it rape.

      ... and attempting to have detractors killed would face a worse charge.

      That is BS. If there was evidence that he had done that, he would have been charged, and the evidence presented at his trial.

    28. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your entire post in nothing but red herrings and bullshit--you've posted a surf 'n' turf.

    29. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still we're talking non-violent crimes...

      victimless crimes!

    30. Re:outrageous by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Yes which is why they have a dispute resolution system.

    31. Re:outrageous by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I'm not real keen on the right to have guns, but the AK-47 is the exact sort of thing the Second Amendment was intended to protect.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    32. Re:outrageous by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      That is BS. If there was evidence that he had done that, he would have been charged, and the evidence presented at his trial.

      Not necessarily. There's plenty of reasons you may not want to charge someone with a crime you know they've committed. Consider that it may be embarrassing for the prosecutor, may open up new technicalities that allow a case to be thrown out, expose sources of knowledge etc. If someone is going away for life as it is there's very little reason to slap something else on him when you could always do it later.

    33. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then you don't know SHIT, son!

    34. Re:outrageous by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      All he did was facilitate transactions among consenting adults.

      That's what I keep saying about bookies and pimps!

      Unfortunately, one of the guys with whom Ulbricht was facilitating a transaction to kill someone was a federal agent.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    35. Re:outrageous by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      If someone is going away for life as it is there's very little reason to slap something else on him ...

      ... except he is "going away for life" precisely because of the accusations of "murder for hire", for which he was neither charged nor convicted. That is blatantly unconstitutional, and I hope this sentence is thrown out on appeal. A life sentence for providing an online marketplace is absurd.

    36. Re:outrageous by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      The article itself mentions that five of the attempts to hire a hitman were actually scams targeted at Ulbricht

      And he fell for all of them.

      "Attempting to hire a hitman" is not exactly like falling for someone selling a fake Rolex in Times Square.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    37. Re:outrageous by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

      Weirdly there's no evidence of that claim, and the government decided not to try and prosecute for that.

      Two different things. The government also decided not to charge Al Capone for murder.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    38. Re:outrageous by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      so does google get charged if someone looks up (using google) a hitman?? of course not

      in essence, all ross did was the same thing google does

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    39. Re:outrageous by ShaunC · · Score: 1

      So where does selling a fake passport to a murderer or a rapist come in on your scale of "non-violent crimes"?

      Was Ulbricht charged with selling fake passports to murderers or rapists? Or even facilitating the sale of such? I must have missed that.

      --
      Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
    40. Re:outrageous by Beerdood · · Score: 0

      Analogy fail. You should have used the pirate bay for a better example.

      Try making some bomb threats or death threats, or perhaps make some offers to buy or sell drugs using one of those service providers and see how well that turns out for you. Silk Road was designed specifically for black market / illegal transactions. Ulbricht even called himself "Dread Pirate Roberts". If you can't tell the difference between eBay and Silk Road - well then I suppose these words are lost on you.

      --
      Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
    41. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about a machine gun? A bazooka? A SAM? Where is the limit or is there a limit?

    42. Re:outrageous by DaHat · · Score: 2

      Except for that you are speaking of what really amount to common carriers which transport bits without much worry about what they are.

      Now if Comcast was in the business of advertising they have the best internet pipe for looking for slaves, chemical weapons or terrorists for hire... you might have a point.

      There is a big difference between something legitimate being used for illegitimate purposes and something being built explicitly for illegitimate purposes... this is why guns tend to be legal while building a bomb is not.

    43. Re:outrageous by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I've supported fraudsters, getting enough information to protect myself from them. Someone offering to kill for you isn't right in the head. Pissing them off by rudely declining "fuck off" would probably not be a wise move. Failing to rebuff immediately someone who approached you is far from soliciting them, or transacting with them.

    44. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      - I mean, if some corrupt African dictator wants to buy some weapons to wipe out the rioters, that's not my fault - all I did was facilitate the chemical weapons transaction.

      Victim: rioters.

      - If someone wanted to buy some slaves, and all I did was facilitate the transaction; not my fault.

      Victim: slaves.

      - CP getting bought and sold on my trading network? Whoa, not my fault, all i did was provide a medium for two consenting adults to make a transaction (involving non-consenting children).

      Victim: children.

      - Someone hired a hitman to kill a journalist that exposed your corruption using my transaction network? Look pal, it's not like I pulled the trigger. All I did was provide a medium/platform that made it much easier for you to complete your transaction. I'm sure that even without my transaction network around, the hitman would have been hired in the black market yellow pages.

      Victim: journalist.

      Someone traded drugs through a platform I operated.

      Victim: ?

    45. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posting anon because my karma is terrible for refuting stupid liberal comments in a way that makes people feel stupidly liberal.
      Making excuses by arguing the 1% solution is just dumb. I doubt the police will investigate the death of a child molester. On the other hand, judging from the amount of press i've glossed over for the last few years, i'm kinda glad this guy will be off the radar for a while. Consiutional rights and ideology is important but sometimes I'd like them to apply to the average guy instead of some common thug or wierdo illegal alien.
      incidetally, where did that whole term come from? There is no such thing as aliens. Aliens are made up bullshit, as oppossed to fuckheads that wander around in this country doing whatever they want based soley on the color of their skin. Anyway the point is, i don't really give a shit what criminals do after they are judged.

    46. Re:outrageous by rahvin112 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      According to the sourced wiki article the use of pot went up a small amount while all the harder drugs saw measurable drops in use. They are also probably getting much more reliable statistics now that people don't need to lie.

    47. Re:outrageous by KGIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This... I am a proponent of legalization of all drugs. Anybody that wants drugs can already get them (that is why we have a "drug problem"). Their being illicit makes them attractive to some. Legalization takes away the criminal aspect of drugs themselves which makes the price more reasonable. Nobody is just going to go out and start shooting heroin because it is legal - those who are going to do so are already doing so. The war on drugs is being won - it is being won by the junkies!

      Go team Junkie!

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    48. Re:outrageous by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      What a lovely post. Depicts everything that is wrong with the war on drugs.

      You just equated drug use by consenting adults to child pornography, terrorism, slavery, mass murder and war crimes. Great job there! You forgot to scream think of the children at the end. Though I do give you bonus points for the betterment of humanity bullshit at the bottom, as if YOU get to decide what betters humanity.

    49. Re:outrageous by Assmasher · · Score: 1

      What, exactly, would *you* not allow between consenting adults?

      --
      Loading...
    50. Re:outrageous by KGIII · · Score: 5, Funny

      A weekly prescription in the UK (citation was called for)? I am going to the UK baby! I get Suboxone (buprenorphine) by the ton - I am prescribed 32mg per day which is insane but... I had a rather long love affair with extracting Fentanyl from the mylar patches (easier to regulate the amount than the gel type) and the needle. It was a lovely time. I heard what was killing people (Fentanyl being used as a dope cut) so I went and found some Fentanyl... I bought in bulk (100 to 500 patches) so the price was fantastic. It truly was an enlightening time and I am retired with enough money to cover it so I planned on doing it forever - until I noticed I was 110 pounds and stopping on my own threw me into a long hallucination where I thought I was actually in a rehab but I was at home with vomit in a bunch of buckets and I smelled like ass. Fentanyl is about 80 times stronger than heroin. It is measured in the microgram. It is also very deadly if you are not opiate tolerant and/or try to do a lot of it. For harm reduction sake start small and then work up. You can do another shot, you can not undo a shot. You probably will not be able to self-administer Narcan.

      So...

      I recently hit a rehab... I am doing a long-term program as soon as I can find one that allows me to bring my own computer and has openings. This I should probably post AC but, I did it - I typed it, I own it and am responsible for it.

      Yes I am still pro legalization of drugs, all drugs. I hold that position even if the only outcome is the decreased spending in the War on Drugs.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    51. Re:outrageous by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      In very few states, unless the drugs were administered against the will or without the knowledge of the victim.

      I do not think most rape laws currently reflect the "common law" rules under which most people would like to live.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    52. Re:outrageous by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      I always wondered about all the innocent men, women and children Weasley murdered during his time with/as the Dread Pirate Roberts, who, after all, "leaves no survivors."

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    53. Re:outrageous by meta-monkey · · Score: 1

      Um, no. Those things were also going on on Silk Road. It wasn't JUST drugs. It was also, actually, guns and CP and God knows what else.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    54. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    55. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Name a single social problem associated with drugs that is not the result of prohibition removing the legitimate government's oversight, quality control, and legal system from the drug market and replacing it with black market "quality control" and "dispute resolution." Name a single physical/psychological problem associated with drugs that is alleviated or better dealt with by prohibition and stigmatization rather than medical treatment by doctors.

      Conclusion: Drugs suck. Prohibitionism is not the answer because not only does it fail to alleviate any of the problems, it actively makes nearly all of them worse AND creates entirely new ones. And this is without even beginning to reference all of the other horrible society-corroding side effects prohibition has ("To make laws that man cannot, and will not, obey serves to bring all law into contempt").

      It really is like realizing you've eaten some ant killer, and reacting by chugging a glass of roundup: Not only have you not helped the original problem, you've actively made it worse and at the same time created entirely new problems. The one and ONLY thing that prohibition successfully accomplishes is to help holier-than-thou fundamentalist douchebags who masquerade as Christians get off on how superior they are.

    56. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Silk Road was used for all of those things, not just drugs. You either get all of those things, or none - there's no middle ground on the black market.

        it's the op (and you) attempting to isolate drugs here as being the only factor in this verdict. That seems disingenuous to exclude the other factors and only mention the war on drugs.

    57. Re:outrageous by Curtman · · Score: 1

      Silk Road had dispute resolution too.

    58. Re:outrageous by 101percent · · Score: 1

      Where did all the slashdotters like you go? Have they started rounding us up already?

    59. Re:outrageous by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      then I think I'll stick with not having this transaction platform exist at all for the betterment of humanity.

      Good luck with that. Let me when you are victorious in your war against substances and black markets. Really. Let me know. I'll sign up for your We are Going to Win Any Day Now newsletter.

      You can't win. Ever. Because your enemy is us. Human beings in general. You can execute as many people as you want. There will always be more.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    60. Re:outrageous by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing it was only the first Dread Pirate who earned such a reputation, and the followups just cashed in on it. One might interpret that to be "no quarter given if you resist us". After all, it's not good business to kill all your victims, because:

      a) You encourage them to fight to the death, since they've got nothing to lose, and
      b) They can't return to the high seas for you to steal from again.

      Westly demonstrated a willingness to kill when needed, but also demonstrated mercy as well, or at least a reluctance to kill those he didn't consider evil. Also, there wouldn't be very many women and children on the high seas.

      Yes, I'm an eternal optimist. Sue me. It's one of my favorite stories.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    61. Re:outrageous by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      Try making some bomb threats or death threats

      Do it from an internet cafe or cafe/restaurant wifi or from any open wifi connection or one only protected by wep. Quite easy to do quasi-anonymously. This really had nothing to do with Ulbricht. He just provided the street corner where drug dealers could gather and offer drugs if they wanted. It's not like he put a gun to anyone's head and forced them to do anything.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    62. Re:outrageous by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      So arrest and prosecute the federal agent for attempted murder. He's the one who should be in jail. Not Ulbricht.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    63. Re:outrageous by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

      It is done in nearly every country. Being addicted to a substance doesn't necessarily remove your ability to consent. Furthermore, there are no doubt plenty of people consensually buying an selling drugs for business purposes and are not actually users of those drugs, despite this activity being illegal.

    64. Re:outrageous by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 2

      I think you mean "victimless crimes". There are plenty of non-violent crimes like (e.g. money laundering) that are not victimless. Victimless crimes are those who have no unwilling partcicipants who are harmed (i.e. victims).

      Drugs certainly harm lots of people, but these people are "willing participants" in the legal sense of the word, and therefore not victims in the legal sense of the word.

      The illicit drug industry is certainly exploitive, like how payday loans are exploitive, but these people are still making their own (albeit very poor) decisions.

      They could probably be considered victims in some broad and indirect way, but not in the same way as someone who is murdered or assaulted.

    65. Re:outrageous by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      So arrest and prosecute the federal agent for attempted murder. He's the one who should be in jail. Not Ulbricht.

      You don't think facilitating the transaction for a hitman for a percentage of the price should be a crime?

      Remember, Ulbricht got a cut of the money for every single drug transaction on Silk Road. It's as if he bought a downtown building and rented it out to drug dealers (and hit men) and got a cut for every single transaction.

      I know there's a belief that the Internet is a magical place where laws should not apply, because it's digital!, but that's just not how it works.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    66. Re:outrageous by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      All he did was facilitate transactions among consenting adults.

      Illegal transactions. And he got a cut from every deal made.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    67. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > All he did was facilitate transactions among consenting adults.

      And hire hitmen....

    68. Re:outrageous by Jeeeb · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're wrong on two points.

      One, he was given the maximum sentence available for the crimes he was charged with. In his sentencing hearing murder for hire was brought up by the prosecution, just as his supposedly good character was brought up by his parents. Both parties can say whatever they want in a sentencing hearing, as long as the judge sentences within the guidelines for the crime the criminal has been found guilty it is not an issue.

      Two, he has been charged, separately with murder for hire. The case is in progress. If found guilty, he will be sentenced separately within the guidelines for that crime.

    69. Re:outrageous by ShakaUVM · · Score: 1, Informative

      >Since the decriminalisation in 2001 drug usage has actually dropped in Portugal.

      For some values of "dropped".

      From Wikipedia, since decriminalization: "Reported lifetime use of "all illicit drugs" increased from 7.8% to 12%, lifetime use of cannabis increased from 7.6% to 11.7%, cocaine use more than doubled, from 0.9% to 1.9%, ecstasy nearly doubled from 0.7% to 1.3%, and heroin increased from 0.7% to 1.1%"

    70. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think you could call putting a hit out on several people "transactions among consenting adults", but Silk Road itself should not have warranted any prison sentence on its own.

    71. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Something is wrong with our country.

      I agree. Hiring hitmen should be legalised, dickbag.

    72. Re:outrageous by Dan541 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Still we're talking non-violent crimes....

      Murder for hire is non-violent?

      --
      An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
    73. Re:outrageous by Dan541 · · Score: 1

      I don't see Google hiring hitmen do you?

      --
      An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
    74. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posting anonymous to let you know your Karma sucks because you use words like fuckhead and your arguments are vacant. And your grammar and spelling are poor.

    75. Re: outrageous by Hussman32 · · Score: 1

      Also remember. Westley was allowed to live.

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    76. Re:outrageous by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      well one - we dont know if they do/did or not

      second, he wasnt charged with doing so, as such in the eyes of the law, that fact should not be used in determining the penalty

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    77. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to be hauled like a side of beef in a slaughterhouse to the nearest Holocaust museum. Then you will learn that deference to government is considered harmful.

    78. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How much of that is due to people who simply failed to report their crimes, but now feel comfortable enough to be honest about their drug use.

    79. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hasn't anyone made the connection between the various UN narcotics conventions and the dismantling of fixed currency exchanges under Bretton Woods? The reason drugs were to be made illegal was to make certain the populace were to be productive as possible to back fiat currencies. The problems are the banksters.

    80. Re:outrageous by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 3, Informative
      Go back say 100 years. Then you could occasionally go to a chemist and buy a set containing heroin and syringes. See for yourself: From 1898 through to 1910, diacetylmorphine was marketed under the trademark name Heroin as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant. And here someone even has a site on hystoric syringes.

      I don't say that using heroin makes sense. For me it doesn't. But who are we to meddle with people that want to intravenously inject that stuff? Just because someone proclaimed a war on drugs doesn't mean that such a war makes any sense.

      --

      I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
    81. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't see Ross Ulbricht being charged with hiring hitmen; do you?

      Vague accusations should not count towards a prosecution for an unrelated crime. If they had enough evidence they would have charged him for conspiracy murder, and they didn't.

      Do we put people in jail for unpaid speeding and parking tickets, on the vague accusation that they're also child molesters or bank robbers?

    82. Re:outrageous by mounty1 · · Score: 1

      Hell hath no fury like a judicial system scorned. "Contempt of court ? You bet."

    83. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you should be executed for being that dumb

    84. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still we're talking non-violent crimes....

      Murder for hire is non-violent?

      Errr... uncharged "crimes" are a pretty flimsy basis. Murder for hire is worse, so if they had any kind of case on that, why didn't they at least charge him, Schwartz-style, just for the extra leverage? They always charge you with 52 counts of farfetched BS, why not a "credible" M4H count?

    85. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Victims: the buyer of the addicting, mind altering drug; her children and family; taxpayers who pay for medical care; victims of the crime drug addicts inflict to pay for their daily shot.

      There's plenty of harm to others (negative externalities) even when "consenting adults" transact in heroin or methamphetamine, and it's the basic libertarian right of any human civilization to defend against them.

      Negative externalities: libertarianism's Achilles heel.

    86. Re:outrageous by thegarbz · · Score: 0

      Yep and they were responsible for everything, and how the leader is spending life in jail. The system works.

    87. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can see that the founding fathers weren't predicting A-Bombs. Still, they understood ships with cannons, batteries of cannons, mines, armed submarines. Basically, a whole lot of shit that's more lethal than owning an assault rifle. But that's the USA not Portugal.

    88. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The article itself mentions that five of the attempts to hire a hitman were actually scams targeted at Ulbricht

      He believed that he was hiring a hitman. The fact that these were police stings and no one was hurt was a lucky accident, as they prevented him from actually carrying out the horrible crime he had intended.

      Also, they DID charge him with that and you can find this in the one of the court documents linked in another comment here.

    89. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fact that a child molester in Texas would get less time should say we have our priorities wrong.

      That depends upon whose priorities we're talking about. The current system appears to suit the American elites just fine.

    90. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you buddy, I don't owe you my productivity.

    91. Re: outrageous by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Stands to reason this nonsense would be posted AC; "Portugal saturated with black - market AK's..." Ha!

    92. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The USA is gone, the founders are dead. This is a feminist cuntry now (has been for more than a century, when they banned child marraige of girls)

      Don't like it. Kill yourself. It's the only way out.
      Or revolution somehow.

    93. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. So the solution is become a nation if pedos? Yeah that's working out for the Middle East so well.

    94. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know of any country on earth where heroin, methamphetamine etc. can be bought and sold freely among consenting adults. So you probably should say something is wrong with human society.

      What users of Silk Road transacted should not be the responsibility of the organisation running the service. Are you arguing the road building companies should be liable for drug traffickers and human traffickers transporting their "merchandise" via the roads built by these companies? Are you ultimately arguing that the Government is liable whenever illegal activity is facilitated by the interstate highway system funded by the public and increasingly private for-profit corporations via toll roads?

    95. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posting anonymous just because I can.

    96. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not coincidently these same people have a tendency to engage in the same prohibited activities behind closed doors. How many politicians rail against illegal drugs and support the "War on Drugs" yet smoke marijuana and sniff cocaine? Hint: George W. Bush and William J. Clinton are two examples but there are plenty more not the least of which was a member of "Camelot" and the "Kennedy Dynasty."

    97. Re:outrageous by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

      Since one of the victims was 16, I challenge you to demonstrate that the purchaser were adults. Further, when sales are in the kilos of meth, it is almost certain that it is to a dealer for resale to people of all ages, adult or not. I have never met a dealer who asked for id.

    98. Re:outrageous by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

      Since Ross actually transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoins to the presumed hitman, who then provided photographic "evidence" of the hit--which Ulbricht helpfully documented in his journal and administrator email logs--the judge correctly found a preponderance of evidence that the attempted murder attempts were real and could be used as evidence in the sentencing hearing. The judge had to actually truncate the enhancement points (50) down to the maximum (43) before deciding on an actual sentence. At level 43 life in prison without possibility of parole is the recommended sentence. Also, the points are non-linear. 1 --> 2 might mean a few months more in prison, 42 --> 43 might mean another five years in prison. We can only imagine what level 50 would be, if it existed. 100 years? 150 years?

    99. Re:outrageous by Curtman · · Score: 1

      The system can't seem to find a victim though. The system is broken.

    100. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He ordered someone to be murdered.

    101. Re:outrageous by houghi · · Score: 1

      I thought you were talking about bankers for a momemnt with the 'rape of millions'.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    102. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bull. He facilitated and earned from transactions concerning stolen credit card or other very personal data, dangerous weapons and chemicals, forged documents, drugs and much more. He is a criminal. People should get their bearing right.
       

    103. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I used to check out Silk Road once in a while when it was alive, including their forums. Never saw any of those items.

      I didn't have a user on the site or the forums, so I wouldn't know what's behind the scenes. Although, I've read some analysis and didn't hear about this sort of stuff either (Wikipedia seems to agree that CP and guns were explicitly prohibited on the site).

      Can you point to any of the sources that claim otherwise?

    104. Re:outrageous by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      Most countries, actually, until the "war on drugs" that started in the mid-20th century, largely motivated by expanding police powers and political advantages; there was little evidence it was necessary or effective.

      And, yes, there is something wrong with human societies that they fall prey to this kind of manipulation and that they keep bowing to statism. Hopefully, we can fix that during this century, as people recognize that individual liberty and free will is more important than any kind of societal objectives.

    105. Re:outrageous by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      Since Ross actually transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoins to the presumed hitman,

      I haven't followed the case that closely, and my impression is still that it is far from clear that Ulbricht did this. Given that juries are not particularly technically inclined, I'm not sure I trust a jury to make the correct determination "beyond a reasonable doubt".

      Can you point at a clear summary of what establishes the identity of Ulbricht as the guy who hired and paid the hitman?

    106. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no mysterious, uniform group of "banksters". Some banks are useful, others are pure rent-seekers and cronies. If you lump them all together, you are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. And the problem isn't primarily with the rent seekers, it's with the politicians who cooperate with them.

      As for the UN narcotics convention, that had much simpler reasons than "fiat currency": police in the US wanted more power, more jobs, and more people, and criminalizing narcotics was a good way of achieving that. There was also a good deal of racism involved, as the drug policies were primarily targeted at blacks and Mexicans.

    107. Re:outrageous by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      Using opiates, and at your own dosage, does make sense for many people: people who are suffering badly, who are terminally ill. And the determination of who needs it and who doesn't should be left to the individual. If you think this is a serious social issue, you might perhaps reasonably require counseling and/or labeling (but then, I think you might reasonably require that before abortion too).

    108. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Best of luck sir :)

    109. Re:outrageous by mOzone · · Score: 1

      says Anonymous Coward

      if drugs are so legal in portugal why do people still goto jail for selling and why does Portugal seize 20-30 tons of drugs a year ...just make more off fines now buuttt its legal

    110. Re:outrageous by sudon't · · Score: 1

      Drug prohibition is only about seventy ~ eighty years old. The US used its coercive powers to get other countries to adopt it, and many eventually embraced it. The idea that you can prohibit plants, or tell people what they can't ingest, is a new one. There's a reason we have drug prohibition. It's not the default position.

      --
      -- sudon't

      Air-ride Equipped

    111. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am glad you weren't involved in the case.

    112. Re: outrageous by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

      http://www.wired.com/2015/02/r... It was authenticated in his own journal found on his seized laptop.

    113. Re:outrageous by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      "reported"

      it's a lot easier to get a patient to admit doing something unhealthy "do you eat fast food? do you drink alcohol?" than it is to get them to admit to committing serious crimes. "have you ever injected drugs with a dirty needle"

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    114. Re:outrageous by sudon't · · Score: 1

      ...don't get to choose what goes on your black market if you turn a blind eye...

      That's the thing about black markets. No one gets to choose what goes on them. Well, I guess the government that creates them, by banning items, gets to choose what goes on them. These markets are created whenever a government decides to ban, or prohibit, anything the public desires. Silk Road at least had a modicum of control. DPR brought some of the benefits of regulation to what is otherwise a completely unregulated market.
      The thing about unregulated markets is that they always engender violence, simply because the actors have no other way to resolve disputes. The illicit nature of the business requires secrecy, resulting in an inability to trust anyone. Police are very fond of exploiting this inability to develop trust, just as they did in this case. It quickly becomes a crime-creating feedback loop. Prohibition simple doesn't work.

      --
      -- sudon't

      Air-ride Equipped

    115. Re:outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're serious about getting better, forget the computer. I'm a lifelong geek too, but that should be the last thing on your mind when you're looking for rehab. You won't miss it.

    116. Re:outrageous by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I pretty much need it for communication with some family. I will also be gone for a year and a half. I would rather give away my left arm.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    117. Re: outrageous by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      but he wasnt being charged with it. as such, it doesnt matter

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    118. Re: outrageous by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

      Well, he is charged with it in Maryland, and just a preponderance of evidence permits it to be used at the sentencing hearing. The judge mentioned it three times in her remarks before pronouncing the two life sentences.

    119. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Victim: For-profit prison system
      Victim: Drug running CIA
      Victim: Bribe taking politicians
      Victim: Money launderers
      Victim: Money confiscating police

    120. Re: outrageous by KGIII · · Score: 2

      Thanks - it all started with cluster headaches in my youth (yay - powerful opiates when you are 12!). Later it was buying them and chipping with H. Then I learned about the lovely Fentanyl and I could wear the patches during the work week! Then I figured out how to extract the Fentanyl using heat and an acidic substance. (Harm reduction - I will not detail it here.) You eventually get an injectable substance that will knock your dick into the floor. Nodding on H? Nothing even like it - much stronger. The warm blanket and the disappearing legs? That was an eternally (seeming) bliss. Chronic insomnia did not help either - this was an EXCELLENT way to go to sleep (respiratory depression anyone?) and I am fortunate to have gone through it and lived but I was always generally safer than most. (You can do another shot, you can not undo a shot.)

      Being a junkie, a functional one, is an art form. The first step is to find an OLD junkie. They exist. Find one and learn from them. Learn safe IV practices (change sites, always towards the heart, clean rigs, etc...) I thought, for the longest time, that I was not addicted (or a junkie - it was medicine damn it!) because I could stop. I did and my brain broke for five days. It took someone (sort of a cook, housekeeper, neighbor) telling me that I did not have a catheter before the rest of the world/room came into focus. I am glad I paid someone to always check in on me. I am not sure how I used the actual bathroom and reconciled this in my head... The funny part is that I have paid good money to hallucinate like that and never had anything so complete. I have eaten bibles for of blotter, quarts of liquid, peyote, mescaline, and myriad 'research chemicals.' Nothing, I mean nothing, came close to what my broken head fed me. That is when I said I must make it to a detox and called someone to drive me. (I, of course, shot the hell up a bunch before going. So much for the initial five days...)

      This being SlashDot I am certainly not accountable for my own actions (I kid, I am fully accountable) so I am going to blame it on Curiosity. In college I was curious so I took a few organic chemistry classes. I eventually even found an old strain of poppies in a nice lady's flower garden and scored big and made diamorphine (I hate that term - but it is H in case you do not know) but it was not enough to keep me occupied. So, I had something in a base with a known evaporation point for the good stuff and, well, the rest is history (I am not wanting to give directions).

      So curiosity and chemistry are to blame.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    121. Re: outrageous by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      The article you point to says:

      On Monday, in the final hours before the the Department of Justice rested its case against Ulbricht, prosecutor Timothy Howard read aloud from a long series of private messages retrieved from the Silk Road’s market server and user forum.

      It says nothing about "authenticated in his own journal found on his seized laptop".

      Wikipedia says:

      Ulbricht's lawyers contended that Dread Pirate Roberts was really Mark Karpelès, and that Karpelès set up Ulbricht as a fall guy.[42] However, Judge Katherine Forrest ruled that any speculative statements regarding whether Karpelès or anyone else ran Silk Road would not be allowed, and statements already made would be stricken from the record. In the second week of the trial, prosecutors presented documents and chat logs from Ulbricht's computer that, they said, demonstrated how Ulbricht had administered the site for many months, which contradicted the defense's claim that Ulbricht had relinquished control of Silk Road. Ulbricht's attorney suggested that the documents and chat logs were planted there by way of BitTorrent, which was running on Ulbricht's computer at the time of his arrest.

      I'm still wondering what the evidence is that proves "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Ulbricht is DPR. It's reasonable to assume that, even probable, but that should not be enough for a felony conviction.

    122. Re:outrageous by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      There was no limit intended by the Founding Fathers. The idea was that civilians would be allowed to own artillery, warships, that sort of thing.

      However, if the "militia" part of the Second Amendment means anything, it means that everybody would have the right for actual military armament.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    123. Re: outrageous by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

      I am sure it will be litigated in Baltimore, if the indictment against Ulbricht goes forward there.

    124. Re: outrageous by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1
      Even though he wasn't federally charged with soliciting murder, he was in Maryland which proceeding is pending. Further, the federal judge found by a "preponderance of evidence" (not "beyond a reasonable doubt") that Ross did in fact order what he believed were hits upon both extortionists and in one case family. With this finding she could use that fact for purposing of sentencing where there is a range of possibilities for her discretion.

      Believe it or not, given the facts proven at trial and the probable cause for additional facts such as solicitation of murder, he is lucky not to get the death penalty.

    125. Re: outrageous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, if it "will be litigated in Baltimore", why did you state this as an established fact in your response? And what does a murder-for-hire plot have to do with the other charges?

      Since Ross actually transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoins to the presumed hitman, who then provided photographic "evidence" of the hit--which Ulbricht helpfully documented in his journal and administrator email logs--the judge correctly found a preponderance of evidence that the attempted murder attempts were real and could be used as evidence in the sentencing hearing. The judge had to actually truncate the enhancement points (50) down to the maximum (43) before deciding on an actual sentence.

      The case against Ulbricht strikes me as very weak, and I think the conviction sets a dangerous precedent.

    126. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      so does google get charged if someone looks up (using google) a hitman?? of course not in essence, all ross did was the same thing google does

      No, a closer analogy would be to hiring a hitman via an ebay auction. And, ebay won't let you do that because it's illegal.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    127. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I think you mean "victimless crimes". There are plenty of non-violent crimes like (e.g. money laundering) that are not victimless. Victimless crimes are those who have no unwilling partcicipants who are harmed (i.e. victims).

      Drugs certainly harm lots of people, but these people are "willing participants" in the legal sense of the word, and therefore not victims in the legal sense of the word.

      The illicit drug industry is certainly exploitive, like how payday loans are exploitive, but these people are still making their own (albeit very poor) decisions.

      They could probably be considered victims in some broad and indirect way, but not in the same way as someone who is murdered or assaulted.

      The people harmed by drugs also include children, relatives, friends, lovers, business owners, hospitals, law enforcement, passers by and society as a whole.

      Whether they are legally victims is another question, but it is naive to say that only the meth addict himself is affected.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    128. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      individual liberty and free will is more important than any kind of societal objectives

      So we should let individual psychotics own nuclear weapons and anthrax grenades and run around raping babies?

      Grow up.

      It's a question of balance.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    129. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Silk Road had dispute resolution too.

      By offering a wide choice of legbreakers and hitmen for hire?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    130. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      he has been charged, separately with murder for hire

      I have seen it seriously argued by libertarians here that this is not even a crime: somehow it's just a conversation between two people (which is free speech) and if the hitman happens to murder someone, that's entirely up to him. The money that passes between them is presumably just paying for their time, like with a professional escort.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    131. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Prohibition simple doesn't work.

      Having laws against child rape and murder, and punishments for child rapists and murderers doesn't prevent child rape and murder, but it certainly reduces them.

      Whether prohibiting drugs is a good idea in the first place is a different question.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    132. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      So arrest and prosecute the federal agent for attempted murder. He's the one who should be in jail. Not Ulbricht.

      So if I pay you to kill someone, you should go to jail for murder if you're found out, but I've done nothing wrong and shouldn't be punished at all?

      Or are you distinguishing between murder and conspiracy to murder, and just don't think the latter is a crime at all?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    133. Re:outrageous by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I've supported fraudsters, getting enough information to protect myself from them. Someone offering to kill for you isn't right in the head. Pissing them off by rudely declining "fuck off" would probably not be a wise move. Failing to rebuff immediately someone who approached you is far from soliciting them, or transacting with them.

      He should just have hired a second hitman to kill the first hitman who was soliciting him. Then hired a third hitman to kill the second hitman so there were no witnesses to the hit on the first hitman. And so on.

      And each step generates pure free market trade free from government interference, and is therefore a Good Thing.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    134. Re:outrageous by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      So we should let individual psychotics own nuclear weapons and anthrax grenades and run around raping babies? [...] It's a question of balance.

      Yes, it is a question of balance, which is why I said "more important than", not "overrule all other concerns". Using and trading in drugs should not be banned.

      I would point out that it is only governments that have mustered the enormous amounts of money to develop "nuclear weapons and anthrax grenades", and actually used it people. In the real world, the only way to waste money on such crap is to take away people's resources and labor by force.

      Grow up.

      Stop being such a moron, and while you're at it learn to read English.

    135. Re:outrageous by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 1

      Or are you distinguishing between murder and conspiracy to murder, and just don't think the latter is a crime at all?

      In Ulbricht's case, the only proof of a conspiracy is a text file of a chat log on his computer, a file that he claims he didn't create. How is he supposed to defend himself against that?

      Laws against conspiracies make sense in an ideal justice system where people take "beyond a reasonable doubt" seriously; very few people could get convicted on that.

      In the real world, convictions on intent and conspiracy are hard to prove conclusively, hard to defend against if you're innocent, and very likely to be abused by prosecutors. And in Ulbricht's case, the alleged conspiracy wasn't even what he was on trial for, so it wasn't even properly litigated, it was used to increase his sentence to life in prison.

    136. Re:outrageous by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 1

      I never said only the meth addict is affected. I said that "victimless crime" is a better name for drug use than a "non-violent crime". While drug use is certainly non-violent, there are lots of non-violent crimes which have a victim, and drug use does not.

      There is a difference between your dad missing your 1st birthday because he's out shooting up, and your dad murdering someone. I am not saying drug use doesn't harm anyone. I am saying that to equate both these examples as "harm" trivializes the kind of harm that would constitute a legal victim.

      Furthermore, I would argue that imprisoning people for drug use actually causes more harm than the drug use itself. You are tearing apart families, ruining people's careers, and exposing them to real (e.g. violent) criminals in prison.

      So if you are going to say that people are harmed by drug use (i.e. it's not victimless), then I will say that most of that harm is actually caused by the criminalization of drug addiction, and the state is actually the perpetrator and the victims are the people sent to prison and their friends and families.

    137. Re:outrageous by Curtman · · Score: 1

      Same as eBay, seller reputation.

      End prohibition. Stop the violence.

    138. Re:outrageous by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Almost anything can be brought up at sentencing. If we limit things in sentencing to only what was presented at trial, then people could not make supportive statements either.

      I agree that it's pushing the limits of propriety (and necessity) to factor in allegations for which there will be a separate trial, especially if he is found not guilty, but I also don't think the bar you set is necessarily the correct one.

    139. Re:outrageous by jopsen · · Score: 1

      So where does selling a fake passport to a murderer or a rapist come in on your scale of "non-violent crimes"?

      Unless you know the intend of the person you're selling a passport to, you can't really be part of the next crime that follows... and yes, that is a non-violent crime, there is no violence in selling documents.

      But as I understood it silk road on provided contact. So he is basically guilty of no moderating his site, knowing that a lot of criminal activity was organized there. I'm not saying that isn't a crime, but it's similar to how the pirate bay was guilty of copyright infringement by ignoring the fact that their "legitimate" file-sharing service was mainly used for illegal distribution. Granted silk road organized things worse than TPB, that said, life in prison is a hard sentence (one you can't even get in many other countries).

  4. Question Authority ... by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... and the authorities will question you.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  5. Top-down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice to see the head of a criminal enterprise go to jail, not just the foot-soldiers.

  6. Hard Appeal to Counter by timrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think Ulbricht has a pretty good case for an appeal here. Take the part in the article where the federal prosecutor mentioned that people had died from overdoses of drugs they had purchased on Silk Road. The way the prosecutor says this, they make it sound like Ulbricht had something to do with their deaths by overdose, when in all likelihood they would have purchased drugs and overdosed from somewhere other than Silk Road had the site not existed. The same thing goes for the failed attempt at hiring a hitman - they didn't charge him in that case, and yet it was still being brought up as "character evidence".

    I really fail to see what makes Ross Ulbricht any different from a regular drug dealer on the street (few of whom get life sentences) other than the massive amount of media attention that Silk Road got and that he was dealing drugs over the internet.

    1. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I really fail to see what makes Ross Ulbricht any different from a regular drug dealer on the street (few of whom get life sentences) other than the massive amount of media attention that Silk Road got and that he was dealing drugs over the internet.

      I don't know too many drug dealers who pocket $142 million. I feel that might have something to do with the decision.

    2. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really fail to see what makes Ross Ulbricht any different from a regular drug dealer on the street (few of whom get life sentences) other than the massive amount of media attention that Silk Road got and that he was dealing drugs over the internet.

      I am not trying to defend him, and don't want to, but was he actively selling drugs himself using Silk Roads, or was he just making it possible for other to sell drugs over Silk Roads? If it is the first I don't see how this makes him a drug dealer.

    3. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that he was the creator of the organization that facilitated all these illegal activities, not just a corner drug dealer.

    4. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by bobbied · · Score: 2

      I really fail to see what makes Ross Ulbricht any different from a regular drug dealer on the street (few of whom get life sentences) other than the massive amount of media attention that Silk Road got and that he was dealing drugs over the internet.

      I don't know too many drug dealers who pocket $142 million. I feel that might have something to do with the decision.

      Well That and given the number of transactions they can prove he was involved in... I'm sure it is thousands...

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    5. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's just one of many points that was wrong with his prosecution, and his sentencing.

      I especially like that the prosecution withheld Information about their agents, beneficial to the defense, as well as proving beyond a doubt the means of how exactly they tracked down Ulbricht in the first place. Here'sa hint: kind of involves the NSA.

    6. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I really fail to see what makes Ross Ulbricht any different from a regular drug dealer on the street

      The difference is that he stood up to the man, and challenged the system. It is the same reason that in Russia or China, dissidents are punished more harshly than murderers. They are a threat to the system.

    7. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Well That and given the number of transactions they can prove he was involved in... I'm sure it is thousands...

      Would you prefer that those thousands of transactions occur on street corners? Or on school playgrounds? By moving these transactions to the privacy and safety of the web, he was providing a useful public service.

    8. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by tlambert · · Score: 1

      Except that he was the creator of the organization that facilitated all these illegal activities, not just a corner drug dealer.

      Well, technically, on that note, DARPA, LLBL, the IETF, his ISP, A.G. Farbin, Bayer, Sandoz, Vint Cerf, and Tim Berners Lee are all accessories before the fact...

    9. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by bobbied · · Score: 1

      The safety of the transactions is not the issue... What is at issue during the sentencing phase is the willful, repeated violation of the law thousands of times and that the prosecution could prove it. Repeat offenders get harsher sentences.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    10. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by DaHat · · Score: 2

      You forgot "9/11 was an inside job"

    11. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by slew · · Score: 1

      Except that he was the creator of the organization that facilitated all these illegal activities, not just a corner drug dealer.

      Well, technically, on that note, DARPA, LLBL, the IETF, his ISP, A.G. Farbin, Bayer, Sandoz, Vint Cerf, and Tim Berners Lee are all accessories before the fact...

      I don't think "accessory before the fact" means what you think it means. "Accessory before the fact" means you know about the *crime* (or perhaps even encouraged it) before the crime is committed. Simply enabling the commission of a future crime by your actions does not make you an accessory if you have no knowledge about the crime.

    12. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by DaHat · · Score: 1

      So a gun, knife or rope manufacturer should be label anytime someone misuses their products?

    13. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by KGIII · · Score: 1

      In Federal court if you get on the train you are a part of the "conspiracy to commit..." for everything. If I go buy an eight ball on your behalf and happen to be part of a Federal sting then I am just as culpable for the 8 ounces the dealers had in the house as I am for the mere eight ball I picked up for you. Gram or pound, you are in for the whole ride not just for your small amount. Fair? Nope. Reality? Yup...

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    14. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's an 8 ball, in drug terms?

    15. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      willful, repeated violation of the law

      By whom? Not by Ulbricht.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    16. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jet fuel can't vaporise steel beam columns like the ones in the twin towers. and NEVER forget building 7 didn't get hit by a plane. Larry Silverstein knows the truth.

    17. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by tlambert · · Score: 1

      The internet ones all created facilities that could have conceivably been used to build a "Silk Road". And by "conceivably", I mean "conceivably at the time", as in "Silk Road is not sufficiently non-obvious that it should be granted a patent".

      The two pharmaceutical companies were involved in the development of drugs which were capable of being abused (one of which was heroin), and it's not like drug abuse was unknown at the time.

      If not "before the fact", then at least accessories.

      In the same way that gun manufacturers have been hauled into court for facilitating murders.

    18. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One thing he really did wrong was not having a dead man's switch on his laptop. The way they got him was some FBI thugs tackled him at a library while he was using his laptop. His hard drive was encrypted, but they got it away from him before he could shut it down. He should have had some sort of auto-shutdown-if-you-don't-enter-the-password every 60 seconds or something. Sure, it would have been inconvenient, but it would have stopped those assholes right in their tracks. A USB stick with some sort of RFID sensor and the corresponding censor taped to his body would also have been a good move, then when he was separated from his laptop, no more RFID signal, and the computer would shut down.

    19. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by KGIII · · Score: 1

      1/8 or 3.5g of an ounce (of cocaine).

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    20. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

      The judge addressed this in the hearing. She said that it was proven by a preponderance of evidence that there was a direct nexus between the Silk Road and the deaths (opened Silk Road package and hypo still in the victim's arm, designer drug ingested gift from friend who testified that it came from the Silk Road, etc.) and asserting that they would have died anyway from another source was purely speculative.

    21. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gun *manufacturers* get hauled into court. Not gun inventors. Also the charges against them are based in negligence, not accessory.

    22. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      A - gun makers have been sued in civil courts, wich are completely different than criminal courts.

      B - everyone who has ever sued a gun maker because someone was killed with a gun has lost, namely because it's legally accepted that blaming inanimate objects for what people do with them is idiotic.

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    23. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by jsh1972 · · Score: 1

      eighth of an ounce, or approximately 3.5 grams.

    24. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by sudon't · · Score: 1

      One difference from a regular drug dealer on the street is that he wasn't dealing drugs. No more than Pierre Omidyar is dealing Hummel figurines. Very much like eBay, he created a web site where sellers could reach buyers, and vice-versa.

      --
      -- sudon't

      Air-ride Equipped

    25. Re: Hard Appeal to Counter by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      More dipshittery.
      Truthers are easy to troll.

    26. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Well That and given the number of transactions they can prove he was involved in... I'm sure it is thousands...

      Would you prefer that those thousands of transactions occur on street corners? Or on school playgrounds? By moving these transactions to the privacy and safety of the web, he was providing a useful public service.

      Yeah, try using that defence when you're arrested for owning a string of crack houses and safety conscious hi tech meth labs.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    27. Re:Hard Appeal to Counter by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Yea, processing the payment for an illegal transaction so you can take your cut somehow doesn't make you an accessary.... Sorry, but if you have reason to believe a crime is being committed from a transaction you are making possible, you really have a duty to report the transaction or risk being seen as an accessary.

      It's like driving the getaway car from an armed robbery.... If you know what they are doing inside the bank while you sit in the car waiting for your friends to get back, you get charged with the robbery too, as an accessary. You didn't rob the bank, but you knowingly helped others to do so.

      No you can argue you didn't know, that they never told you what they where doing with the ski masks and guns at the First National Bank, but if you took your cut, who's going to believe you? Same with Ulbricht, he took his cut, full knowing what was being traded, he is guilty of a crime for each transaction... Now folks want to claim he didn't know? That's nuts...

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  7. Guilty of what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't bother to RTFM, so is somebody willing to post a summary of what was he found guilty of?

    Also does this mean that sites like eBay are responsible for whatever is sold in their website? Or just the mere action of creating an eBay like service in ToR is illegal?

    1. Re:Guilty of what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's quite different. EBay doesn't go to great lengths to hide the identities of its users/customers. Silk Road was set up for a single purpose - to hide identities and transactions from the authorities. Not that I think that's really a bad thing, but I do recognize that it is a fundamentally different business model than eBay.

    2. Re:Guilty of what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is this what he was found guilty of? Is this illegal?

      Again, I am not trying to defend anyone, I am just wondering.

    3. Re:Guilty of what? by bobbied · · Score: 2

      However, E-Bay goes to some effort to detect and report illegal activity and I'm sure they are willingly and routinely working with law enforcement. The whole point of Silk Road was to AVOID law enforcement.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    4. Re:Guilty of what? by stafil · · Score: 1

      The whole point of Silk Road was to AVOID law enforcement.

      I thought the point was to provide anonymity. Can't we in the same extent say that people who are running TOR nodes are also trying to avoid law enforcement?

    5. Re:Guilty of what? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      The whole point of Silk Road was to AVOID law enforcement.

      I thought the point was to provide anonymity. Can't we in the same extent say that people who are running TOR nodes are also trying to avoid law enforcement?

      Actually DPR's purpose was to MAKE MONEY by avoiding law enforcement entanglements.... He knew what was being sold and where the money he was making came from.

      Running TOR nodes falls eerily close to this, and I would imagine that doing this would put you at risk of criminal charges. Personally, I'd not risk it.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    6. Re:Guilty of what? by DaHat · · Score: 1

      From the WSJ:

      After a three-week trial in New York City, Mr. Ulbricht was found guilty in February of seven criminal charges, including conspiracies to sell drugs, launder money and hack computers.

    7. Re:Guilty of what? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Considering the joke that the legal system of the US has evolved into, I have a hard time making an informed decision whether this is the right or the wrong thing to do.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:Guilty of what? by Cramer · · Score: 1

      Sellers, sure. Buyers, however, are very much hidden from public view. But yes, eBay does have data to hand over to a court that would help identify a specific person.

    9. Re:Guilty of what? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Sorry you are so jaded.. Personally, Where I do feel there are times when the legal system in this country has issues (Like when judges legislate from the bench or invent "rights" which don't exist) the legal system in this country is among the best in the world and history. I find that the problem usually is that people don't understand the legal system, how it works and why.

      But my real complaint is not about the courts or judges, but the law. Our elected legislators are way to fast to draft some law and be seen as supporters of some political cause and few take the time to understand existing laws or how their new one changes things. This leads to inconsistent and unintended side effects which the courts are forced to uphold. The law is too big, to complex and addresses too many things and the courts are left to sort out the mess into some kind of sensible way. It's no wonder they fail sometimes.

      So place your blame on the right party, the nutcases who write the law, and not the courts.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  8. of course! by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lack of respect for legal and political authority is evidently a far worse crime than actual murder.

    1. Re:of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Watch out Uber!

    2. Re:of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless your last name is Clinton.

    3. Re:of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course. Most laws are made to exercise political control over the 99%. You just need to make them overly broad, so trivial acts are clumped together with serious ones like terrorism, rape, pedophilia.

    4. Re:of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you don't understand how trying to undermine the entire system of laws in which the country relies on for its very existence would get a rather harsh response?

    5. Re:of course! by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 1

      Hmm... maybe someone should start up a spin-off called LobbyRoad where politicians can meet to trade kickbacks and favors in an anonymous setting?

    6. Re:of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      you don't understand how trying to undermine the entire system of laws in which the country relies on for its very existence would get a rather harsh response?

      That is a bunch of shit right there. We obviously need less laws. Not more.

    7. Re: of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't that called Congress?

    8. Re:of course! by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      Hmm... maybe someone should start up a spin-off called LobbyRoad where politicians can meet to trade kickbacks and favors in an anonymous setting?

      Done & done.

      https://www.clintonfoundation....

      Unfortunately, HRC's private email servers she hosted at her home while SoS are temporarily down due to a security issue. Authorities wanted to see the contents.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    9. Re:of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Know duh. Would you smack your kid if he: a. killed the gold fish or b. disobey your direct order to not smoke pot?

      nuff said. lack of respect builds mobs, and gov't will ultimately protect itself from that. How'd you think we got into WWII? Everyone here poo-poos it cause it's not "freedom" [from a self-centered point of view, as we are after-all, a self-centered species].

    10. Re:of course! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The ultimate, most profound and most unforgivable crime to any authoritarian is to defy the authorities.

      Remember "I vas just following orders?" Translation: "The authorities said to commit depraved mass murder and burn the bodies, so I did."

      When you realize that this is the basis underlying the religious brand of authoritarian and the "how can you possibly have morality without God?" thing, it's scary. So if the voices in your head^w^w^w^w^wGod said to go on a killing spree, you would?

    11. Re: of course! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      No, it is Swissotel Watergate Hotel, the participants are Congress.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    12. Re:of course! by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Or you're "too big to fail". Too bad his drug cartel didn't fund weapons deals with terror groups that "we" like, then he'd probably be celebrated as a true American hero instead.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  9. Meanwhile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An adult (yes, he _was_ over 18) who molested his pre-pubscent sisters
    paid a "judge" to expunge the on-going criminal records citing those facts...

    Oh, wait, those aren't the facts? Well we'll just look at the records and sort
    these thigns out - oh, wait - the records are gone!

    CAP = 'discard' !!!

    1. Re:Meanwhile... by bobbied · · Score: 2

      According to the news reports I've read, and assume are accurate...

      He was 14, not 18, the issue was reported (albeit not to the right authority) and the young man was sent to "treatment" for his issues by his parents and as far as we know it didn't happen again. I haven't heard any of the victims complaining that something else needs to be done, or that his behavior didn't stop. It was also 13+ years ago and the statute of limitations happened to be 3 years. It's old news and there is nothing of value we can accomplish by discussing it now, unless of course you WANT him to loose his job and be publicly disgraced for what he freely admits where vile and evil actions that he highly regrets having done.

      But feel free to invent any new facts you want, because as you point out, there are no records... But there never where any in the version of events I've been reading.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Meanwhile... by tlambert · · Score: 1

      An adult (yes, he _was_ over 18) who molested his pre-pubscent sisters
      paid a "judge" to expunge the on-going criminal records citing those facts...

      Oh, wait, those aren't the facts? Well we'll just look at the records and sort
      these thigns out - oh, wait - the records are gone!

      Too bad he didn't live in Europe; sending a "Right to be forgotten" email to Google is a heck of a lot cheaper.

    3. Re:Meanwhile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Today I learned that being 14 counts as "over 18".

  10. There seem to be a lot of implications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The prosecution hinted that he was responsible for six murders, but didn't charge any, naturally ("he's a murderer, just take our word for it"). They pointed out that at least one person died from a drug overdose, implying that this was his fault. Really? Not the fault of the person who overdosed, or the person who sold the drugs but the person who created the means of sale? So the next time someone is caught selling drugs out of their car, we'll just seize the vehicle then dig up the corpse of Henry Ford and put it on trial?

    It sounds a lot more like the government trying to make an example out of someone. I really hope that this doesn't hold up on appeal.

    1. Re:There seem to be a lot of implications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, if my kid swallows a piece of lego that was purchased via BrickLink, and dies, does that mean the owner of BrickLink facilitated murder? Shouldn't we instead go blame Lego for the faulty part, or the child for being stupid, or the parents for not supervising their children's play?

      This is a VERY slippery slope.

      Now, I don't think he's innocent. It's clear he set the site up to be beyond the law, and to allow transactions that if done on a public street, would likely land you in trouble with the police.

      If you can't legally buy/sell that product type in a local store, what makes you think doing it via the postal service and using a web site would make it any more legal?

    2. Re:There seem to be a lot of implications by bobbied · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are MANY avenues for appeal in this case... But that doesn't change the fact that he's going to jail, likely for a long time. After all, he made a boatload of cash from the illegal trade he made possible. Remember it was his INTENT to allow people to engage in illegal activities, it was the sole purpose of the website he ran, he knew what was going on and even made money from the illegal activities and encouraged such activities. Henry Ford built cars which may have had the potential for being used for illegal purposes, but cars are mostly used for legal purposes and are purchased for legal reasons. I'd further bet that if you told Ford that you intended to use your car to commit a crime, they would be inclined to at least report you.

      No the Henry Ford analogy just doesn't work here...

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    3. Re:There seem to be a lot of implications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, if my kid swallows a piece of lego that was purchased via BrickLink, and dies, does that mean the owner of BrickLink facilitated murder?

      I dunno, did BrickLink know that you were going to feed your kid a lego brick?

    4. Re:There seem to be a lot of implications by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      If you follow that logic to its end, I guess a couple of gun manufacturers should now be sweating into their boots.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  11. Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban that? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Selling drugs and weapons are serious crimes and should be justly punished. Propz to GNAA

    Let's devil's advocate a bit...

    The Second Amendment clearly (to anyone who understands how English was used at the time) forbids the Federal Government from interfering, in any way, with obtaining and carrying weapons. (infringe ~ "even meddle with the fringes of") That includes gun trafficing, because stopping gun sales makes it harder to exercise the right.

    The Tenth Amendment explicitly, and the Ninth Amendment implicitly, ban the Federal Government from use of any power not explicitly specified in the Constitution as amended. I don't see anything in there that explicitly gives the Federal Government to ban any drugs or traffic in them, or in any way regulate such traffic (beyond forbidding false advertising claims, setting standards for labeling, and the like). (Do YOU find any such power in there? If so, please point it out to us.)

    So it could be argued that, by the Federal Government's own basic laws, these were NOT crimes and the "Dread Pirate" was a freedom fighter.

    (I won't even get into the issue of the Anarchist claims that ANY government is necessarily illegitimate, coercively imposing its will on people who did not pre-approve this and are not attempting, themselves, to coerce others. The people who promulgated the Constitution were doing their best to get governments off people's backs.)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  12. Re:Derptastic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Keep licking them boots and some day they might let you wear one for a few minutes

  13. Re:Derptastic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You seem to be confused. It is the government agencies that are the ones that seem to think they can "do whatever the fuck you please." Or are you perfectly happy with them being directly responsible for the exact behavior you pretend to hate so much?

  14. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by donkwich · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Tenth Amendment explicitly, and the Ninth Amendment implicitly, ban the Federal Government from use of any power not explicitly specified in the Constitution as amended. I don't see anything in there that explicitly gives the Federal Government to ban any drugs or traffic in them, or in any way regulate such traffic (beyond forbidding false advertising claims, setting standards for labeling, and the like). (Do YOU find any such power in there? If so, please point it out to us.)

    The Commerce Clause? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

  15. His letter by Pascoea · · Score: 2

    I have to admit, whether he actually wrote it or not, the letter to the judge was pretty powerful. I realize it's just a bunch of bullshit, designed to get him the lightest sentence possible, but it was still good bullshit.

    That being said, when you can physically murder someone and still not get a life sentence, I think the penalty may have been a little harsh. I don't understand how a life sentance "as to make a harsh example out of Ulbricht" helps anything.

    1. Re:His letter by rahvin112 · · Score: 1

      You aren't seeing how a harsh sentence helps the political career of the prosecutor and judge. It's called tough on crime. There are a lot of people, particularly black men, in jail for very long times so someone could be seen as tough on crime while a woman that did the same thing never even went to jail.

  16. Changes nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... being a "drug kingpin", and prosecutors were asking for a sentence substantially higher than the minimum ...

    The FBI hasn't stopped drug importation, drug consumption, online sales, or money laundering and crypto-currencies. But taking millions of dollars from the middle-man and keeping him in prison makes the FBI the good guys. To me, it proves the war on drugs really is a racket that enriches law enforcement.

    The benefit of dark-markets is natural capitalism (IE. that 'invisible hand' which corporations promise they just happen to have.); the vendors have to provide a quality product or lose business, unlike a street-corner franchise. This makes drug consumption safer although the spectre of drug addiction remains.

    It's already proven that another criminal, sorry, entrepreneur will take over this online monopoly. It's every entrepreneur's dream to have a guaranteed monopoly that promises "I got mine, fuck you" wealth : Why does the FBI hate America?

    1. Re:Changes nothing by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I think it's because of the freedoms that still exist.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  17. Attention Citizens by randalware · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is another example of how far our government has it's head up it's a**.

    A man dealing in information and taking a fee is sentenced to life.
    Most of his crimes are in the imagination of the prosecutors.
    The Mafia still exists, but they pay bribery (and lawyers)

    An organized criminal in our banking & financial industry get off with a fine.
    It's just another day on Wall street (too big to fail?)

    Destroy a million peoples retirement & mortgage, who may never recover and criminals profit.

    Destroy the countries health and bribe the congress to allow it !
    Monsanto, RJ Reynolds, & ?

    Pay attention Eric Snowden, don't come back to the US.
    They are planning something truly awful for you.

    --
    This is my opinion based on what little I know and understand of the rumors and lies Thanks, Randal
    1. Re:Attention Citizens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Mafia still exists, but they pay bribery (and lawyers)

      It's not nearly as strong as it used to be. Not nearly.

      The Communist Party USA exists too, but it's smaller than ever and wields zero influence.

    2. Re:Attention Citizens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry, but I can't take you seriously when you've got the name of poor Enrique Snodweña wrong.

    3. Re: Attention Citizens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you certain of that?
      We did just get socialist health care and minimum wage increases from a republican led government...

    4. Re:Attention Citizens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Pay attention Eric Snowden, don't come back to the US.
      They are planning something truly awful for you.

      Edward.

  18. Harsh by Andy+Smith · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not at all supportive of what he did (you won't find a more anti-drugs person than me) but this seems particularly harsh.

    If this sentence is to "set an example" then it must be overturned. The keystone of justice is fairness and setting an example with a harsh punishment is by definition unfair.

    1. Re:Harsh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If this sentence is to "set an example" then it must be overturned.

      American law is based off of common law, which is based entirely on the idea of precedents.

      Your argument for fairness based entirely off of logical arguments from the civil code is not in agreement with how society is built in this part of the world.

    2. Re:Harsh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By definition it is fair!

    3. Re:Harsh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FTFA:

      "In addition to running Silk Road, Ulbricht was also accused of hiring a hitman (who turned out to be an FBI agent) to kill an employee he believed was stealing money from him."

      So, does attempted murder put things in a little more perspective?

    4. Re:Harsh by Ostrich25 · · Score: 2

      Was he *convicted* of attempted murder?

    5. Re:Harsh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it was an element of one of his crimes and the judge explicitly said so in a court document linked in another comment here.

    6. Re:Harsh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. If he is charged and convicted of that, he should be sentenced for that crime at that point.

      Not in a separate case.

  19. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Commerce Clause?

    Nope. (The powers it DOES confer were already alluded to in my posting.)

    [The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

    "Regulating" = making regular, setting standards, etc. It does NOT include banning whole classes of trade entirely.

    If they want to PROMOTE drug and gun sales, that's fine. B-)

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  20. Oh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Deuteronomy 22 28-29, original language.

    1. Re:Oh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The judge did not accept this excuse when I fucked my daughter. Nice try though. Oh and thanks guys! I enjoy the free internet in prison. That free college degree I'm working on is sweet too!

    2. Re:Oh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Deuteronomy 22 28-29, original language.

      It's Friday Night and 8chan is bringing the biblical child-rape apologetics.

    3. Re:Oh? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Damn you! I read It's Friday Night. It made me think of Sam Cooke - Another Saturday Night... So off to YouTube, half hour gone, and here I am back but I do not notice the missing time easily... "Another Saturday night and I aint got nobody, I got some money 'cause I just got paid. How I wish I had someone to talk to, I'm in an awful way." i bet I have the earworm for a couple of days.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    4. Re:Oh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kill the judge etc then: follow Deuteronomy

  21. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by donkwich · · Score: 0
  22. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    regulate commerce with foreign NATIONS.

    Meaning you need to be a legal recognised entity to do business in the USA

  23. The guy is clearly an idiot by kosmosik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    IMO he is an idiot. He knew that what he was doing was illegal. He was taking big profit from it. Yet he decided to run his *internet* business from US. Which is stupid. Since it is an internet business you could run it from anywhere and given the income he had he would have settled him OK in any country. Yet he decided to reside in US where his sentence would be draconian for sure. Clearly an idiot.

    1. Re:The guy is clearly an idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it weren't for stupid criminals, the police and courts would have no convictions, since they don't seem to be smart.

    2. Re:The guy is clearly an idiot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He'd need to pick a country without extradition to the US, which limits him. He'd also need good internet access and a government that isn't even more anti-drug as the US is and might hand him over or just jail him themselves.

    3. Re:The guy is clearly an idiot by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      Not entirely an idiot for hiding in a place the cops wouldn't expect. The DEA probably also has more restrictions within the USA, while outside the border they can use any means necessary.

    4. Re:The guy is clearly an idiot by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Not even remotely true. There are many brilliant people incarcerated. They are just immoral - except for the innocent ones... See, a criminal has to be lucky EVERY time. The police only have to be lucky once. The statistics are heavily weighted in the State's favor.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    5. Re:The guy is clearly an idiot by houghi · · Score: 1

      If being an idiot would be a crime, the US would have the most people in jail in the world. Oh, wait.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  24. Re:Derptastic. by epyT-R · · Score: 1

    No, but it makes it difficult to accept judgments made by said government on citizens. No one likes a preachy, bulling hypocrite.

  25. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In the real world as opposed to your imagination the interpretation on the Constitution and the powers of the the Federal government rests with the courts (and 300 years of history) rather that what you deduce by parsing the text.

  26. Re:Derptastic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah it IS an excuse to do what the fuck I want. They aren't better than me and neither are you, coward.

  27. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you know what the fuck a pressure regulator is? It "regulates"= makes regular & sets a standard pressure flowing through it. In order to do that, it increases (promotes) flow or DECREASES (demotes) flow to achieve it. The word "regulate" isn't one sided. Don't play dictionary definitions with me, boy. You'll lose every time.

  28. Idiocy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, you mean a _crime_ was specifically meant to flout the laws of the US?! As opposed to all those other US-based crimes that aren't, you know, contrary to the laws of the US?

    Judge is a grandstanding moron.

  29. Judges undermine justice by Andy+Smith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I posted in this thread already but then went and read more about the case, and thought I'd share some anecdotal evidence.

    As part of my job I sometimes have to sit in court rooms for specific cases, and I end up hearing a lot of other cases while I'm there. Two have stuck in my mind.

    The first was the case of a lady who had been stopped by the police for using her mobile phone while driving. Her defence was that she'd been at home and a relative had called to tell her that her dad had been rushed to hospital. She jumped in the car, set off, and phoned her sister. That was when the police saw her. The prosecution didn't challenge her version of events. To me it seemed like an obvious time for a judge to use his discretion, but no, because her defence involved an admission that she did use the phone while driving, so she was found guilty and fined about £750 if I remember correctly.

    Another case was a police officer accused of causing injury by dangerous driving. He'd driven through a red light while responding to an emergency call and collided with another car. I'm going to paraphrase as best I can how the judge handed down his verdict: "It is part of a police driver's job that they will sometimes have to exceed the speed limit or go through a red light when responding to an emergency call, and it is vital that due care and attention is paid to ensure that it is safe to do so. You did not exercise due care or attention when going through the red light and that lack of care caused the collision. However, you were responding to an emergency call, and therefore the court hands down an absolute discharge." Read that again if it's not immediately obvious what was wrong with the judge's logic :-)

    Here's my point. When I read about the Ross Ulbricbht court, what comes across to me is that the judge is saying "blah blah yadda yadda legal stuff and now here is MY OPINION" which will vary from judge to judge. But surely justice must be consistent? You shouldn't have one judge convicting a person for making an urgent phone call, but a different judge effectively exonerating a policeman for not driving with the care required by his job. And you shouldn't have a judge handing down an entire life sentence when another judge would most likely have given a sentence of 10-20 years.

    Opinions shouldn't come in to justice. If they do, it's not justice, it's one person's opinion of what justice should be.

    1. Re:Judges undermine justice by spads · · Score: 1

      It's a very small step from judge to "judge-mental"! :)

      --
      Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
    2. Re:Judges undermine justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To me it seemed like an obvious time for a judge to use his discretion,

      Opinions shouldn't come in to justice.

      So... which is it? Discretion and opinions should or should not be used by judges?

    3. Re:Judges undermine justice by KGIII · · Score: 1

      20 years was the minimum which is why he was asking for the minimum -- so he could have his old age as his middle age was going to be spent in the penitentiary. US justice (or just us) is hardly logical and attempting to apply logic to it will not help you one bit. Judges have discretion but only above the minimums (they can sometimes find the defendant guilty of lesser charges, that is rare, and sentences will be lighter) and the top is the limit -- life in this case but I expect something like 35 years after they appeal the sentencing. He has already been turned down for a new trial. He will almost certainly get to appeal the sentencing phase given the inclusion of hearsay and the judge admitting to using that evidence when considering the penalty. Another thing that Americans seem to miss... You go to prison AS punishment, you do not go to prison FOR punishment. The punishment is your loss of freedom.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    4. Re:Judges undermine justice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think all judges are great, but it is a hard job. The trouble is that many situations are not as clear-cut as people would like to pretend they are. Lets look at the cases you presented for example:

      In the first one the woman admitted guilt and really didn't offer a particularly good excuse. She was not in medical danger herself, nor was her sister. The situation sounds stressful, but at what point do you accept endangering other members of the public when you are not in danger yourself? If she had run a red light to get to the hospital faster would that be acceptable? You can argue that talking on a phone is not as severe as running a red light, but that is already reflected in the relative penalty. She may have been a very nice woman with the best intentions, but the judge needs to decide a line over which she is still culpable, rather than let her off because she is a nice woman. Otherwise the next week every muppet is at court with their lawyer arguing that they were suffering from emotional stress when they made a call while driving. In this case it seems clear that her mitigating circumstances, no matter how well intended, did not cross a line of proportionality, and therefore the law should stand. That the penalty is a moderate fine also makes this the most sensible decision.

      In the second case, the judge needs to weigh up the implications of a dangerous driving conviction on the ability of the police force to do their job. The cop essentially made a mistake in the course of his employment that could have resulted in severe damage to his career. You might not like cops and you might argue that he was likely not acting in the public interest (perhaps he was just wanting to get in on the action) but the judge cannot start with such a prejudice, and carefully covered the circumstances in their judgement, determining that the cop was indeed acting to protect the public when the accident occurred. Now this is a really difficult one for the judge. If they decide that even though the cop was acting in the best interests of the public, their career should be over because of the mistake, that is likely to have a detrimental effect on the police force's ability to respond to emergencies in the future. Yet on the other hand, the person who was hit deserves some level of justice. In the end they made the decision that it is in the greater public good that cops are allowed to trade some individual risk for the overall benefit to the public. If I was the person who got hit by the cop I would think that is unjust. Yet if I was the person waiting for the cop to arrive, I would think that is okay. This is the problem the judge has to deal with and it is not an easy one.

      Not an easy job.

    5. Re:Judges undermine justice by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

      And that is exactly why there are federal sentencing guidelines and minimums--but also with judicial discretion for the unique aspects of a case.

    6. Re:Judges undermine justice by sudon't · · Score: 1

      It's a bit more complicated here. There are sentencing guidelines, and, (unfortunately, in my opinion), mandatory minimum sentences. It is the prosecutor who requests the sentence, and the prosecutor always leans toward the draconian. Indeed, if you have the temerity to insist on your right to a jury trial, you can be sure the prosecutor will throw the book at you. It seems to me you want some judicial discretion, hopefully leaning towards mercy.

      --
      -- sudon't

      Air-ride Equipped

    7. Re:Judges undermine justice by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      The first was the case of a lady who had been stopped by the police for using her mobile phone while driving. Her defence was that she'd been at home and a relative had called to tell her that her dad had been rushed to hospital. She jumped in the car, set off, and phoned her sister. That was when the police saw her. The prosecution didn't challenge her version of events. To me it seemed like an obvious time for a judge to use his discretion, but no, because her defence involved an admission that she did use the phone while driving, so she was found guilty and fined about £750 if I remember correctly.

      Mmmm. I'm not so sure that the judge made the wrong decision.
      Her dad being in the hospital is no excuse for endangering the lives of others.
      Was she a surgeon going to operate on him? No? If he was in surgery, would she even have been let in anyway? No, she would not have been, she would have had to await word from the doctors in a waiting room. In that case, or in the case of him not being in as serious a condition, she could have taken two minutes to pull over and talk to her sister. She's not in an ambulance. She doesn't have people pulling over to make way.

  30. Additional remarks from the judge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...Not only did you show complete disregard for the laws of this nation, you did so from in the middle of San Francisco. Your poor judgement in not choosing somewhere awesome, where you could bribe officials and set up a proper super villain lair, have led me to the decision to sentence you to life in prison. Let this be a lesson to any other drug overlords out there: we will find you, no matter where you hide, although it will probably take a really long time if you buy a bunker in the Burmese highlands or somewhere else totally cool."

  31. This makes me wonder. by tlambert · · Score: 1

    I don't know too many drug dealers who pocket $142 million. I feel that might have something to do with the decision.

    This makes me wonder. Does anyone know how much the State of California collected in sales tax on pharmacy sales last year?

  32. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    I won't even get into the issue of the Anarchist claims that ANY government is necessarily illegitimate, coercively imposing its will on people who did not pre-approve this and are not attempting, themselves, to coerce others.

    I think you just got into it.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  33. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes it can. [Gonzales v. Raich]

    The issue was not in dispute in that case:

    Respondents in this case do not dispute that passage of the CSA, as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, was well within Congress' commerce power

    In my opinion, by the way, Wickard v. Filburn, the New Deal era decision that says making something for yourself (i.e. growing wheat to feed your own chickens, or growing marijuana to use yourself) affects interstate commerce (because you otherwise might have bought it instead, affecting the price) and can thus be regulated, is a travesty that is long overdue for the Supremes to revisit and reverse, as they sometimes do when a previous court broke something substantial.

    But even if you agree that feeding your own wheat to your own chickens is a suitable subject for federal regulation under the commerce clause, don't you think it's a stretch to say that affecting the price of a banned substance by NOT buying it on the illegal market is a legitimate reason for the Federal Government to ban your growing and consuming your own plants? Either way you don't buy in interstate commerce, so how can the difference in your behavior affect it? (Or was it Congress' intent for you to buy illegal drugs?)

    Sometimes more than half the Supreme Court justices follow some argument to a point beyond sanity.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  34. Hang the fuck on... by Rainwulf · · Score: 1

    The CIA and american government has been doing these things for ages, with absolutely no repercussions, but when one guy does it, its a life sentence?
    He should have joined the government first.

    1. Re:Hang the fuck on... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      He didn't use the money he made selling drugs to fund weapons deals to destabilize a few countries, and I think if you don't do that dealing drugs is illegal. Or something like that.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  35. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by catmistake · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Second Amendment clearly (to anyone who understands how English was used at the time) forbids the Federal Government from interfering, in any way, with obtaining and carrying weapons. (infringe ~ "even meddle with the fringes of")

    Your interpretation is quaint, and incorrect, at least it didn't mean that until 2008, Columbia v. Heller

    there is not a single word about an individual right to a gun for self-defense in the notes from the Constitutional Convention

    Nor in the Constitution!

    The public's understanding of the 2nd Amendment started to be distorted by the NRA early in the last century. The NRA has been filling the minds of gun owners with an interpretation that was never intended by the Founders for some time, so no one can blame you for your incorrect interpretation when a propaganda machine like the NRA has been bombarding you with selective truths and out-right lies.

    Four times between 1876 and 1939, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule that the Second Amendment protected individual gun ownership outside the context of a militia.

    That includes gun trafficing, because stopping gun sales makes it harder to exercise the right.

    Wow... THAT is OUT THERE. Of course, you are completely mistaken, and this bold statement of yours is wildly, dangerously inaccurate. Gun regulation is legal, and necessary.

  36. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let's devil's advocate a bit...

    The Second Amendment clearly (to anyone who understands how English was used at the time) forbids the Federal Government from interfering, in any way, with obtaining and carrying weapons. (infringe ~ "even meddle with the fringes of") That includes gun trafficing, because stopping gun sales makes it harder to exercise the right.

    That's an absurd approach to the interpretation of legal wording. For example, it would mean that the government couldn't enforce tax laws, financial fraud laws, immigration laws or worker safety laws on newspapers because such enforcement would be "interfering, in any way" with the newspapers' enjoyment of their first amendment rights. The Second Amendment prevents other issues being used as a pretext to harass gun owners (a special 100% income tax only for gun owners would not be allowed, for example), but it does not say that no regulation at all is allowed. In fact, if anything, the unstructured possession of miscellaneous firearms by private individuals with no mutual organization is already stretching the 18th century definition of 'militia' very far (albeit it is an interpretation that now has a solid history of US Supreme Court precedents).

  37. Re:Derptastic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, but it makes it difficult to accept judgments made by said government on citizens. No one likes a preachy, bulling hypocrite.

    Including government judges... ;^)

    At it’s core, Silk Road is a way to get around regulation from the state. If they say we can’t buy and sell certain things, we’ll do it anyway and suffer no abuse from them. But the state tries to control nearly every aspect of our lives, not just drug use. Anywhere they do that, there is an opportunity to live your life as you see fit despite their efforts.

    We don’t allow the sale of anything that’s main purpose is to harm innocent people, or that it was necessary to harm innocent people to bring it to market. For example, anything stolen is forbidden, counterfeit money and coupons which are used to defraud people, hitmen aren’t allowed, and neither is child pornography. No substance on Silk Road falls under those guidelines.

    I hate to come to you with a problem when we are just starting to get to know one another, but Blake (FriendlyChemist) is causing me problems. Are you still looking for him or now that you’ve found Xin have you given up? I would like to put a bounty on his head if it’s not too much trouble for you. What would be an adequate amount to motivate you to find him?
    Necessities like this do happen from time to time for a person in my position. I have others I can turn to, but it is always good to have options and you are close to the case right now. Hopefully this is something you are open to and can be another aspect of our business relationship.

    Regards,
    DPR

  38. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Second Amendment clearly (to anyone who understands how English was used at the time) forbids the Federal Government from interfering, in any way, with obtaining and carrying weapons.

    Since you're apparently an expert in the colloquial interpretation of 18th century American English, could you please explain what this part of the 2nd amendment means?

    "A well regulated Militia"

    As a serious student of 18th century American History (not focusing particularly on the genesis of the Bill of Rights) it would read comparably to other documents of the 1780's and 90's (this example being 1791) as: "A well regulated militia, by which we mean an armed militia and not a standing army, shall always be allowed."

    Your translation doesn't seem to mention a militia at all...

    --
    Loading...
  39. Re:Derptastic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only if you keep yanking at your leash.

  40. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [quote]Gun regulation is legal, and necessary.[/quote]

    given a well-armed militia, i fail to agree.
    hardly necessary or impertinent, however gun-control enables an up-hill battle for those who aren't on the existing 'well-armed' side.

  41. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AND if the british practiced or could enforce gun control we'd still be eating their crumpets for brunch.
    HENCE the clause in current regulation about self-production of arms.

    SO i thoughroughly fail to see any facet of the argument you make outside a vision of collusion on your part. :)

  42. Re: Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey jackass. You'd better go back to your dictionary and put your damned ego in check.

    'Regulated' has another definition, especially so the 18th century usage. It means well trained, practiced, skilled, disciplined, etc. One gets that way with things by, you know, practicing and training with them. Seeing as how the founders defined the militia as all able bodied people (men, at the time in their usage) that means that people have a right to own weapons and to train with them. Those were two things the British were not fans of colonists doing because it was a threat to their government, which not only was the point, it's why the second amendment exists. Did you not notice that the explicit prohibitions in the Bill of Rights are all things the colonists had done to them during British rule?

    Probably not. You were too busy coming up with out of context definitions and inflating your sense of self importance.

    I win. You lose.

    Dumbass.

  43. *Gets out pocketbook* by Chas · · Score: 1

    Oh boy! Now we get to pay for him to sit on his ass and eat for the rest of his natural life!

    WOO!

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  44. Madoff Got 150 Years by Crypto+Cavedweller · · Score: 1

    Don't become famous for your multi-year, ongoing, criminal conspiracy. You're not getting a warning if that happens and they've got enough evidence to bury you. Yes, lots of guys sold more drugs & guns than him over decades and aren't getting life in prison. You know what they have in common? Not bragging about it on the Internet and counting on l33t skillz to keep them out of prison.

  45. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since you're apparently an expert in the colloquial interpretation of 18th century American English, could you please explain what this part of the 2nd amendment means?

    You're looking at the language and purpose of the amendment incorrectly. To translate its essence into more modern parlance, if would go something like: "Because it's always going to be necessary to have a trained and equipped military organization ready to defend the country, the government - in the interests of not allowing the government to have a monopoly on the tools of defense - shall not prevent citizens who are not in the military from having arms."

    The people who wrote that amendment still had a very bad taste in their mouths from living under a monarchy that DID reserve the power to capriciously allow only the military to keep and bear arms. Knowing that a military/militia is necessary, they used the second amendment to be VERY clear that they considered the fundamental right to keep and bear arms to be NOT exclusive to the military. Just like the considered the freedom to speak to be not under the control of the government.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  46. Shame really by existentialvoid1061 · · Score: 1

    i get it, but 5 to 15 years with probation - not multiple life sentences. Appeal!

  47. Sentencing matched the guidelines by pavon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's my point. When I read about the Ross Ulbricbht court, what comes across to me is that the judge is saying "blah blah yadda yadda legal stuff and now here is MY OPINION" which will vary from judge to judge. But surely justice must be consistent? You shouldn't have one judge convicting a person for making an urgent phone call, but a different judge effectively exonerating a policeman for not driving with the care required by his job. And you shouldn't have a judge handing down an entire life sentence when another judge would most likely have given a sentence of 10-20 years.

    I am undoing moderation to post this, because I have seen similar comments everywhere covering the story, all moderated up, and it simply isn't true.

    Yes sentencing should be consistent which is why we have sentencing guidelines, and this judge followed them. He was convicted of running a continuing criminal enterprise which has a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years. And it gets worse when you add up the offense levels in the guidelines for his crimes: It was demonstrated that people who took drugs purchased on Silk Road have died from that drug use, which give him a base offense level of 38. The continuing criminal enterprise offense adds 4 points, and since he played an Aggravated Role as the ring leader that adds another 4 points, bringing him to 46 points. The sentencing table for someone with no prior convictions and an offense level of 43 or more is a life sentence, period, and that is before talking about the other five charges he was convicted of! As a judge you would have to present a very strong argument as to why someone with that high of an offense level should get less than life.

    The reason he got such a harsh sentence is because our drug laws are so harsh, not because the judge was harsh. Prosecutors have huge flexibility in what they charge people with, and in this case they threw the book at him.

    1. Re:Sentencing matched the guidelines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly.

      Don't blame your judges for doing their jobs. Blame your legislators for not doing theirs.

    2. Re:Sentencing matched the guidelines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was demonstrated that people who took drugs purchased on Silk Road have died from that drug use, which give him a base offense level of 38. The continuing criminal enterprise offense adds 4 points, and since he played an Aggravated Role as the ring leader that adds another 4 points, bringing him to 46 points. The sentencing table for someone with no prior convictions and an offense level of 43 or more is a life sentence, period, and that is before talking about the other five charges he was convicted of!

      So you guys have actually made a formal game out of it, points, scoring and all. Excellent! /s

      You comment reeks of authority.

    3. Re:Sentencing matched the guidelines by Andy+Smith · · Score: 1

      Thank you for posting this. It does make the sentencing seem a lot more reasonable.

    4. Re:Sentencing matched the guidelines by Andy+Smith · · Score: 1

      Replying again :-)

      I totally take on board what you're saying about the scoring system, but I still think it's evident that the judge's personal opinions influenced the sentencing. Consider this quote from the Wired article:

      But in her sentencing statement, Forrest denied even that the Silk Road was a naive experiment, or some sort of youthful mistake. "It was a carefully planned life's work. It was your opus," she said. "You wanted it to be your legacy. And it is."

      None of that is fact. It's what the judge *thinks* is fact. Suppose her opinion had been that Silk Road was a naive, youthful experiment, something that he'd just thrown together and then it snowballed, something that he wasn't proud of. Would she really have handed down the harshest possible sentence? I think she'd have found some justification to give him a lighter sentence.

      Maybe I'm just getting more empathetic as I get older. I've never done anything illegal but I've sure done stupid things, as we all have, and losing the rest of your life because you were a dick in your early 30s seems almost inhumane to me. Most of us do stupid stuff and then we move on and learn from our own stupidity. This guy deserves to lose some of his liberty because his stupidity was illegal, but his entire life? I just can't convince myself that this is how I want my fellow humans to be treated.

    5. Re:Sentencing matched the guidelines by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Erm. Understandable, but not reasonable.

    6. Re:Sentencing matched the guidelines by pavon · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I have always thought it was weird that judges are supposed to take remorse into consideration when sentencing. It borders on violating the fifth amendment protection against self-incrimination, in my opinions. Because they are, judges have to form an entirely subjective opinion on that matter, and you end up with quotes like the above where she is basically countering the defenses narrative of how remorseful he was with her own narrative demonstrating why she doesn't but it.

  48. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Firethorn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Your interpretation is quaint, and incorrect, at least it didn't mean that until 2008, Columbia v. Heller [thedailybeast.com]

    Isn't this self-contradicting? 'quaint' ~ 'old fashioned'. A decision as recent as 2008 is very much not old fashioned.

    The public's understanding of the 2nd Amendment started to be distorted by the NRA [politico.com] early in the last century.

    The NRA wasn't a lobbying organization until late in the last century, so this statement is incorrect. The NRA ended up becoming a lobbying organization due to the spread of gun control laws resulting in it's membership having it create a lobbying branch.

    The NRA has been filling the minds of gun owners with an interpretation that was never intended by the Founders for some time,

    Given what I've read in sources like the federalist papers, I think that the NRA version is closer to reality than yours.

    That being said, your rights can be restricted through 'due process of law', IE conviction by a court and jury of your peers. So I'm okay with things like the NICS check, prohibition by felons. I think that the post-facto punishment of misdemeanor DV charges is a violation, because there's a very good chance that people like police officers who were convicted of such things, usually by pleading guilty, long before this rule was in effect, would have fought it in court and won at least a percentage of the time if the rule had been in place, or they knew it was coming, before they pled guilty.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  49. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Firethorn · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Your translation doesn't seem to mention a militia at all...

    And yours doesn't mention 'the people'. That mention is rather a big deal, I think.

    The 'well regulated milita' is known as a prefactory clause. It explains part, not necessarily all, of the reasoning for the following rule. Which is that the right of the people to keep and bear arms 'shall not be infringed'.

    Personally, to me that means that the government can't prevent you from purchasing, keeping, or carrying firearms short of conviction(or commitment) in a court of law.

    Consider it like the right to have an abortion - but the right to keep arms is actually in the bill of rights. It's #2 even.

    Consider what the pro-life types are trying to do with abortion - same darn things as the anti-gun types are. Waiting periods - make it a pain in the butt, discourage it. Not allowed past a certain point. Gun Permits - equivalent to the briefings/propaganda that they're trying to push on women seeking an abortion. Extra fees compared with forbidding insurance from paying in order to increase the cost. Banning specific versions. Etc...

    The 'shall not be infringed' part should be a high standard against all of the above. Road blocks and detours when it comes to 'arms' should NOT be allowed. Despite this, there's a lot of unconstitutional law out there, and some of it has been in place for quite some time. It's a constant battle to protect our rights - freedom of speech, to bear arms, to privacy, religion, etc...

    (I'm pro-choice and pro-gun btw).

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  50. due process violation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    “I find there is ample and unambiguous evidence that [Ulbricht] commissioned five murders to protect his commercial enterprise,” Forrest said

    if you want hand someone a punishment appropriate for the commissioning of five murders, you must first convict him of those acts. without a lawful conviction, the punishment is arbitrary, and thus a violation of due process.

    1. Re:due process violation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Constitution is paper for wiping shit.

      Feminism, anti-gunz, and opression of males is our creed.

  51. Learn the lesson by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Next time if you want to rip off people, swindle them out of their money, flaunt your condescendence towards the law and be a scourge of society, run a bank. Not only is it far more efficient than some petty drug dealing, it's also safer. The worst that can happen if things go wrong is that you get bailed out.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  52. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by stridebird · · Score: 1

    your [html] skills are not very impressive.

    And so, all these "well armed" people. Deluded. Meeting up with other well armed people to talk about being well armed, shooting holes at bogeys in their minds and Ignorantly re-parsing 18th century English texts as their children run around at their feet, loving it, emulating, fingering safety locks and shooting their kid sisters in the head. It's worth bearing in mind that a well-armed militia would be called an insurgency these days and would be met with a well-armed government. It's hard for me imagine any kind of scenario where the "well armed" would actually "win' any kind of serious test of their well-armedness. In short, they'd get their arse kicked.

  53. You might want to recheck the court documents... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > The same thing goes for the failed attempt at hiring a hitman - they didn't charge him in that case, and yet it was still being brought up as "character evidence".

    The court disagrees with you:

    As explained above, the murder-for-hire evidence is probative both as evidence of the charged offenses and to prove Ulbricht’s identity as DPR—a key disputed issue in this case. In addition, the charges in this case are extremely serious: Ulbricht is charged not with participating in a run-of-the-mill drug distribution conspiracy, but with designing and operating an online criminal enterprise of enormous scope, worldwide reach, and capacity to generate tens of millions of dollars in commissions.

    Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1391926/gov-uscourts-nysd-422824-142-0.pdf

  54. Interesting place... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    US is a great place, but it seems like the sentencing in your legal system is based on strange principles rather than common sense. This guy is a hardened danger to society why? If this was about the murder charge maybe, but it seems like he is more of a danger to some kind of political idealism like a long line of other people.

  55. So like Uber? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Remember it was his INTENT to allow people to engage in illegal activities,"

    You mean like Uber lets people run taxis without the Taxi license/test/insurance/vehicle?

  56. wow can't believe people stick up for this trash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this man was pure trash. a waste of a human being. may he rot in his jail cell. you people disgust me for sticking up for this pile of shit.

  57. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the US by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 0

    I guess you are not an American and you never heard of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

    Here is the link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

    The Obama administration, with its liberal supporters have turned American into a neo-Puritanical state

    Anything that they do not like they ban

    Anyone that they do not like they punish, severely

    To hell with Free Speech

    To hell with Liberty

    To hell with the Constitution of the United States of America

    As long as they get to hold on to power, the neo-Puritans will ensure that everyone tow their line - or else !!

    Go fuck yourself!

    I am an American and I am SICK AND TIRED of your kind

    It is your kind who is bringing America to ruins

    What makes America special is the Constitution which provides protection against cruel and unusual punishment, which protects the citizens from the unruly government

    Without the Constitution there will be no Liberty, and without Liberty America will be like any other despot state - such as China

    Fuck you, and fuck your oppressive master, that motherfucking Obama !

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  58. So what the judge was really saying was.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That Silk Road was the equivalent to today's Executive branch of the United States government who also believe they are above the law, traffic in human lives, drugs, terrorism and murder for hire.

    Gee, can't have an individual competing with the Government now can we?

  59. Fill in the blanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The judge was unswayed, giving xxxxxx the most severe sentence possible. She said, "The stated purpose xxxxxx was to be beyond the law. ... xxxxx's birth and presence asserted that its creator was better than the laws of this country. This is deeply troubling, terribly misguided, and very dangerous."

    Let's plug in our favorite people/organization and illegal program, then measure and compare consequences to level of enforcement.

  60. An idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There must be a way to identify the jurors, doxx them and make their lives hell for the conviction. After all, no law can be enforced and no penalty exacted unless a jury says so.

  61. Re:The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the by mightyQuin · · Score: 1

    Nice double spaces, what is it with opinionated posters and whitespace?

    --
    Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some idea balls to remove from a manatee tank.
  62. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is called a doomsday clause. When governments have the monopoly on the tools for violence, soap pillow fill and LAMPSHADES are the result.

    Guck Fodwin.

  63. Ulbricht Ties The Noose Which Hangs Him by westlake · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think Ars Technica's coverage sums up the judge's thinking very well. Judge says Ulbricht's ''harm reduction'' arguments are fantasies, a mark of privilege

    Before the sentence was handed down, the court heard from two parents of young men who died from drugs purchased on the Silk Road.

    ''You don't fit a typical criminal profile,'' she began. ''It's not TV or the movies in here. You're educated. You've got two degrees, an intact family, and 98 people willing to write letters on your behalf. And yet, we have you. And you are a criminal.''

    Ulbricht had been betrayed by his own words, and over the next several minutes, Forrest proceeded to read the most damning passages from his own logs and journals.

    'It's still not clear to me why you kept a journal,'' she noted, an aside that apparently produced laughter in the overflow room.

    ''You were captain of the ship. It wasn't a world of 'freedom'---it was a place with a lot of rules. It was a world of your laws.''

    ''It was a carefully planned life's work,'' she said, pointing to a 2010 journal entry saying he'd already been thinking about the site for a year. ''It was your opus. You wanted it to be your legacy---and it is.''

    Ulbricht's ideological messages on Silk Road boards ''reveal a kind of arrogance,'' she said. ''Silk Road's creation shows that you thought you were better than the laws.''

    As for the ''harm reduction'' arguments, the judge could not have been more cutting. She read every academic study suggested by the defense, and then some, and was not impressed.

    ''No drug dealer from Harlem or the Bronx would have made these arguments,'' said Forrest. ''It's an argument of privilege.''

    Ulbricht was focused on harm that could come the user. But most drug violence didn't come from buys on the street, but from ''upstream'' violence that grows as demand grows, she asserted. Believing that the user is the only person affected by drug violence is ''f'antasy, it's magical thinking,'' she said.

    As for Fernando Caudevilla, or ''Doctor X,'' the Spanish doctor hired by Ulbricht to give advice to users, the judge read his messages, and found them ''breathtakingly irresponsible.''

    Caudevilla told a diabetic that using MDMA would be OK, as long as he remembered to check his glucose levels by setting an alarm. In another message, he advised an 18-year-old first time drug user to ''be careful and I think you'll be fine,'' and to ''stick to psychedelics.''

    1. Re:Ulbricht Ties The Noose Which Hangs Him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For drug crimes, Ulbricht was sentenced to two life sentences, to be served concurrently. In the US federal justice system, there is no parole available from a life sentence. For aiding and abetting the distribution of computer hacking tools, fake IDs, and for money laundering, he was sentenced to five years, 15 years, and 20 years, respectively.

      Thank you parent for a helpful link. As another poster put it - it was the type of crime committed which caused the life in person sentence. The other crimes committed carried lesser sentences.

  64. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 0

    You're looking at the language and purpose of the amendment incorrectly. To translate its essence into more modern parlance, if would go something like:...

    Given that you clearly do not know what the term "well regulated" meant in 1791, it's much easier to believe that you don't know what the phrase means - and telling people what the people who wrote the document *intended* is borderline delusional.

    I'm looking at the language and purpose objectively, you're clearly looking at it subjectively; otherwise you wouldn't have projected whatever it is you *think* my interpretation is when I've not stated it at all - instead asking the other poster what they believe the phrase means when they clearly ignored it.

    Just for the record I'm not anti-gun and I'm not gun-crazy either.

    To save you the time - 'well regulated' was a turn of phrase that meant 'in the proper form of' - or for a terse and modern interpretation - "normal" and militias were in 1791 primarily organized at the state level as a unifying body.

    So, what the document says (the amendment that was passed by Congress) is basically that the federal government shall not infringe upon the rights of local government militias (primarily targeting the states who were to ratify the amendment - albeit in grammatically different form.)

    It's open to lots of interpretation - but that's how I believe it should be - and I hope it is what they intended. I don't think the early American government believed it could be specific and have these amendments stand the test of time (and they've been proven right over and over.)

    Whatever the interpretation of the grammar, it's clear as day that it was meant that the amendment was intended to retain state powers in the face of a federal government gone amuck - not for anyone to have a gun. Militia had a very specific meaning at that time as well.

    That being said, I enjoy breaking out my Mark 23 periodically and punching holes in targets. ;)

    --
    Loading...
  65. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by execthis · · Score: 1

    I agree. The meaning of "regulate" reminds me of the marks drawn on Gothic cathedrals in Europe - where markets still take place to this day - which indicated the minimum length of loaves of bread that could be sold. In this sense, regulation is really for the purpose of facilitating commerce which often requires standards.

  66. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by execthis · · Score: 1

    On this note, I was recently shocked to find out that in Japan it is illegal to home brew sake.

  67. Re: The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's called indoctrination. I mean education, you see that is how they teach formatting in public school.

  68. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    And yours doesn't mention 'the people'

    It is because the previous poster already did, I merely asked him what he thought the "well regulated militia" meant since he clearly left that inconvenient part out.

    ..is known as a prefactory clause...

    I think you're referring to a prefatory clause - and the only people who consider it prefatory are those who want the primary focus of the sentence to be what is, in point of fact, the clause that makes clear that the militia is not to be confused with a standing army.

    ...short of conviction(or commitment),,,

    I'm not sure how you can argue that "shall not infringe" mean the government has no say (as you do in your last paragraph) in the regulation of arms, yet you make a spurious case for keeping them out of the hands of convicts and the insane - that's a bit hypocritical - don't you think?

    I own a handgun, and being as objective as possible - the amendment rather clearly states that the federal government cannot deprive the individual states from bearing arms in some form of a militia.

    The fact that people are constantly trying to twist those words to mean what it is they want is the problem with the second amendment; however, as I'd previously stated elsewhere - I believe the writers of the amendment intended for it to be less than specific just so it would stand the test of time and be argued in order to fit the times in which it was being applied.

    Really rather ingenious of them actually.

    I'm ex-military, own one gun - (target shooting), and I have always been pro-choice but am having a harder time with it than ever these past few years.

    --
    Loading...
  69. Re: Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean like in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq... ?

  70. Silk Road also delt in Identity Theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you believe the reports:

    > But that wasn’t all Silk Road was selling — there were stolen credit and debit card numbers, fake IDs, counterfeit currencies, hacking tools and login credentials for hacked accounts.

    http://www.wired.com/2013/11/silk-road/

    Not exactly 'victimless crimes'

    A river, cry me one.

  71. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fuck off, troll

  72. Re:You might want to recheck the court documents.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No distinction or difference.

  73. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Just+Another+Poster · · Score: 2

    The sentence referring to Supreme Court rulings between 1876 and 1939 is a lie. In U.S. vs. Miller, for example, the court never questioned that the Second Amendment was an individual right, only whether or not a short-barrelled shotgun was an appropriate military weapon.

  74. Oh dear. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh dear Slashdot. It appears to be more a case of the possibilities of lost goodies than lost liberties.

  75. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by ScentCone · · Score: 1

    Given that you clearly do not know what the term "well regulated" meant in 1791

    I know exactly what it means. And the authors are clear that having a well regulated militia is necessary. Are you foggy about that, somehow?

    They're also very clear, having stipulated that, just like with their British overlords had one, they're going to have a continually armed and well regulated military ... that they're not (UNLIKE their previous British overlords) going to let the necessary existence of that entity be an excuse to deprive the rest of the people from keeping and bearing arms.

    telling people what the people who wrote the document *intended* is borderline delusional

    What? They authors themselves, in a huge parade of letters, recorded debates, and supporting documents, explain exactly what they were thinking when it comes to the constitution and every one of its amendments. Those amendments didn't just cryptically appear and get signed, they were talked to death in congress and documented personal discussions, mused about in journals and letters, and openly debated. It was very clear they considered the personal right to own firearms to be paramount, and distinctly separate from the collective need to keep a well-regulated militia ready to go. Despite their allergy to a standing army of some flavor (having seen what they'd seen), they knew it was necessary to have that capacity always in place.

    The existence of it being necessary, they knew that the temptation was going to be there for someone in military or civilian executive/legislative power to skew towards making that militia/military the only holders of armed power. Remember that the constitution is all about minimizing government power, and the amendments are there to remind everyone that even though they should know well enough from the structure of that charter that personal liberties are a hands-off affair, there are some areas (like political expression, assembly, arms, the sanctity of one's home, etc) that it was worth explicitly laying out as beyond the reach of government control. The linguistic construction of the second amendment may fall oddly on modern earns, but it really is simpler than most people seem to think: "The existence of an armed organization is necessary, but don't assume that the government's power to form and run such an organization gives the government the power to deny the people the right to themselves be armed."

    Yes, "militia" had a very specific meaning at the time. Their urge to use that word was a reflection of how distasteful they found the notion of a large standing federal military (that being too close to their experience with British power). And it's precisely BECAUSE the assumed that the states and even more granular local powers would be taking on the responsibility to have armed groups under their control that they made the individual's right to be personally armed a fundamental, nationally protected right - to prevent a local government from becoming locally tyrannical (and likewise federally).

    I don't think the early American government believed it could be specific and have these amendments stand the test of time (and they've been proven right over and over.)

    Do you foresee a situation where the right to free expression or the right to assemble perhaps should be considered just a little too dangerous, and we should consider taking that away?

    If so, you can start the process of putting a new amendment in place, one that kills of the First. While you're at it, you can try the same with the protections proclaimed by the Second (or the Fourth, if you think that's also a "living" amendment that's worth scrapping), but you're not going to get the supermajority and ratification needed to make any of that happen.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  76. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Yomers · · Score: 1

    The Constitution Day makes me recall
    The portrait of my granny, now deceased:
    The portrait is still hanging on the wall,
    While Grandma is long gone and badly missed.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  77. I was at the sentencing hearing by WorldWarPi · · Score: 1

    The judge spent and hour describing the material on all sides of the case she studied and the reasoning process she used to make her final decision. To tell the truth, Ulbricht's lawyer didn't speak very well and continued to push the apologia of "diminished harm" through internet sales of drugs. Finally, when Ulbricht got to speak for himself, that's all he did. "My character is this..." "My motivation is that..." "please let me celebrate Thanksgiving with my family in old age..." This just after the testimony of two parents who likely lost their children due to a direct connection to Silk Road drug trading. How many holidays will a dead 16 year old get to spend with his family?

  78. I think one drug dealer texted another... by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 1

    We should arrest the creators of texts, emails, facebook, google, and definitely that Mr Bell and his infernal telephone contraption. They all facilitated drug deals. Now that I think of it TCP/IP probably only exists because the dealers were frustrated with lost UDP packets.

    Plus where this guy seems to have made drug dealing even safer we should maybe reexamine the laws that throw this guy into a hole, yet leave the bankers cosy in their mansions. As while I have heard that this guy was a douchnozzle there are many bankers who ruined the lives of literally millions.

  79. Re:Women in power should be killed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is what you get when women rule over men.

    It's funny you think the feminism movement is run by women. It's not all women at the top.

  80. epyT-R, why'd you "Run, Forrest: RUN" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: From http://slashdot.org/comments.p... ?

    Your "DNS lookup" b.s.? 1st: Blocking ads gains speed!

    2nd: Hosts exceed SLOWER remote DNS lookup (prone to exploit via Kaminsky redirect flaw which 99.999% of ISP DNS != patched vs. it!)

    I avoid it PUTTING WHERE I SPEND 95%++ OF TIME ONLINE @ TOP OF MY HOSTS FILE via 30 favs - Exceeding remote DNS indexed lookup lag after query/turnaround for resolution (do the math binary search) over 3++ million records w/ most efficient blocking format = better loadspeed + internal parse & no bloat in hosts cached in LOCAL system RAM via 2 kernelmode subsystems (diskcache & ip stack = no context switch overhead to usermode) vs. remote DNS for utmost in speed, efficiency + reliability (my program keeps hardcodes current) vs. downed DNS too.

    Remote DNS matches hosts abilities not efficiency or speed = inferior for home users!

    * Hosts gain MORE SPEED + EFFICIENCY & ease of maintenance (via http://start64.com/index.php?o...) vs.:

    1.) Remote DNS & w/ less resource use + added on apps complexity/room for breakdown & exploit w/ added resource + CPU & power use w/ a local setup DNS (worse if separate system) & complexity of deny rules vs. hosts simple entries

    +

    2.) "Almost ALL Ads Blocked": Hosts do so more efficiently doing more vs. AdBlock's BLOAT & regex complexity vs. hosts simple entries + addons add overheads layered over slower browsers in usermode increasing messagepassing overheads vs. hosts in kernelmode (run some addons concurrently see what I mean) + other I/O operations involved in addons + memory + CPU overuse + complexity (regex vs. hosts entries) bolted-on in SLOW usemode vs. hosts in PURE kernelmode via a high cpu serviced layer of operation by IP stack. Addons = easily detected by native browser methods + clarityray shutting 'em down (hosts aren't).

    APK

    P.S.=> Hosts != bribed = AdBlock/ABP to NOT DO 1 JOB IT HAD by default... apk

  81. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Commerce Clause?

    Nope. (The powers it DOES confer were already alluded to in my posting.)

    [The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

    "Regulating" = making regular, setting standards, etc. It does NOT include banning whole classes of trade entirely.

    If they want to PROMOTE drug and gun sales, that's fine. B-)

    lol @ non-lawyer libertarians trying to interpret the constitution

  82. He didn't do anything wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The dude did nothing wrong. unbelievably harsh sentence.

  83. Re: Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    militias were actually formed at the local level. Then reported their readiness to the officer in charge of the state. You can see this in the names of the civil-war era regimental names. They often mentioned which city or region in the state they were from.

  84. Re: Derptastic. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. We might allow you to see one though, so that you may say goodbye to some friend or relative. You know, we Republicans force our hired thugs to make their own boots with the skin of commoners they have personally captured, beaten up, raped and flayed and whose raw flesh they have eaten. This is how we train our dogs of war. This is the way of our kind.

  85. Re: Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The text of the constitution says "the right of the PEOPLE". It does not say "the right of the MILITIA".

  86. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by triclipse · · Score: 1

    Whatever the interpretation of the grammar, it's clear as day that it was meant that the amendment was intended to retain state powers in the face of a federal government gone amuck - not for anyone to have a gun. Militia had a very specific meaning at that time as well.

    You're actually completely wrong. If you really want a comprehensive examination of the language of the second amendment (rather that just blather on cluelessly about it) then you should read the entirety of District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008): http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf

    --
    No Inflation Taxation without Representation
  87. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by sudon't · · Score: 1

    The Commerce Clause? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

    Well, why did they need a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol? The Federal government has gotten into the habit of interpreting the Commerce Clause to give themselves the power to do anything. It's gotten ridiculous, and really needs to be reined in.

    --
    -- sudon't

    Air-ride Equipped

  88. hypocrisy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't this unconstitutional? Robbing the guy of life and liberty? But, this is the U.S where the government can rob you any day, any time, because they have the Asset forfeiture law behind them. Nobody should get life in prison for selling narcotics directly or indirectly but like I said this is the U.S. Those who overdosed were not forced to use the narcotics they made a choice and if the government is holding the website operator accountable for those deaths maybe we the people should start holding those in government accountable for the mass genocide that's taking place in the middle east right now since they armed and trained all those Al-Qaeda, ISIS terrorists, ect....

  89. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by KGIII · · Score: 1

    Not taught in most schools:

    Do you know WHY the British were matching to Concord?
    The Tea Party had nothing to do with the Revolution.

    (They were going to disarm the residents of Concord.)

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  90. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by KGIII · · Score: 1

    I realized, long ago, that I can not be pro-choice. I am choice-accepting. I no more support a forced abortion than I do a willing abortion - I do accept the latter, I absolutely detest the idea of the former. I am also pro-gun. That is one of the major reasons the Revolution started. Schools do not talk about WHY the British were marching to Concord, they only state that they were. (They were going to take the canon and disarm the vocal minority.) I, though, own a rather large number of firearms. I even carry - usually open. I have never shot anyone when not in service of the government nor have I even drawn my weapon in anger or for the purpose of using it on a human.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  91. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by gregor-e · · Score: 1
  92. Re:Derptastic. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    Keep licking them boots and some day they might let you wear one for a few minutes

    I really hope you have a better argument than that to counter '"Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, the CIA!" isn't an excuse to do whatever the fuck you please.'

  93. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    I realized, long ago, that I can not be pro-choice. I am choice-accepting.

    Pretty much where I am. Almost as if I divorce myself from the legal issue simply because I'm not female. But as to the moral issue - it's reprehensible unless it's a question of the mother's life versus the baby's.

    That is one of the major reasons the Revolution started...

    I would rephrase that as the march on Concord being the British crossing the rubicon. The British marched to capture an arms cache that belonged to the colonial militia.

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  94. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    I know exactly what it means. And the authors are clear that having a well regulated militia is necessary. Are you foggy about that, somehow?

    Where have I suggested you can't have a well regulated militia?

    They're also very clear, having stipulated that, just like with their British overlords had one, they're going to have a continually armed and well regulated military ... that they're not (UNLIKE their previous British overlords) going to let the necessary existence of that entity be an excuse to deprive the rest of the people from keeping and bearing arms.

    You are making it quite clear that you do not know what the phrase "well regulated" means in 18th/19th century English. It doesn't mean subjected to rules or laws - it means "normal" or "as one would expect."

    You also clearly have some other, bizarre, interpretation where you separate the "well regulated militia" from "the people" - as if the writers were just lazy and couldn't be bothered to write two sentences rather than one.

    The "people" referenced in the amendment ARE the constituents of the well regulated militia. It is saying "let's make this clear that when we say militia we mean a normal militia made up of civilians - NOT the troops of a standing army."

    Again, pointing out that each of these amendments was written in such a way as to restrict the federal government from overreaching STATE governments.

    This concept of modern America being a giant nation that happens to have geographic distinctions called 'states' is a relatively new thing. In 1791, states were basically little countries unto themselves that happened to share strong cultural similarities.

    Their urge to use that word was a reflection of how distasteful they found the notion of a large standing federal military

    They who? The word militia is used because the states need to be assured that if there ever was a federal army the federal government would be bound by law to allow states (and smaller representative local governments) to maintain militias - in other words "if you ever have a standing army, we are still entitled to have our own militias - not that we don't trust you, it's just that we don't trust you that much.)

    Do you foresee a situation where the right to free expression or the right to assemble perhaps should be considered just a little too dangerous, and we should consider taking that away?

    What on earth are you talking about now? Is this your odd segue to turn an academic discussion of the grammar of the second amendment into a political discussion of your personal views?

    ...if you think that's also a "living" amendment that's worth scrapping...

    What? Who wants to scrap any amendments? I think you've made some assumptions about what was being discussed that was neither stated nor intended.

    This has been a discussion about second amendment LANGUAGE usage. Not personal political views.

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  95. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    You're actually completely wrong. If you really want a comprehensive examination of the language of the second amendment (rather that just blather on cluelessly about it)

    Oh, you mean I should read Scalia's *opinion* (which is what you linked to) about what it is supposed to mean despite 4 of the supreme court justices claiming that he's intentionally reading it wrong, and the other 4 are notoriously silent on the topic?

    I was actually glad that the decision went this way, but it had nothing to do with how the second amendment is actually written, and everything to do with a conservative court having a 5-4 majority.

    Rather than relying on a supreme court justice with a clear political agenda, why don't you study some American history...?

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  96. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by KGIII · · Score: 1

    That is probably a better way to phrase it. It lends to the idea that the founding fathers actually DID want to ensure we were able to arm ourselves as a way to help prevent government tyranny. What I dislike is the virtual banning of certain firearms. I can buy (and own) a fully automatic AK-47. The tax stamp puts it out of the reach of nearly everyone. I do not intend to harm anyone with it and the about the only time it comes out of the safe is when I take it to the disabled vets "machine gun shoot." I had the chance to buy a Thompson for $7500 but I did not realize what it was worth or I would have bought it to hold as an investment.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  97. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    My Dad told that they had them firing Thompson's in UDT school in 1962 and that the damn thing almost lifted him right over when firing full auto.

    What I dislike is the virtual banning of certain firearms. I can buy (and own) a fully automatic AK-47. The tax stamp puts it out of the reach of nearly everyone.

    It's not the tax stamp that gets you (iirc it's around $200) it's that there's a limited supply of pre-1996 full auto weapons in the U.S. (would have been a great time to have these in stock!) I hear that MP-40's go for $20k.

    Anyhow, the mish-mash of legislation is because no one can sit down and have a rational discussion about guns sadly.

    I do not intend to harm anyone with it and the about the only time it comes out of the safe is when I take it to the disabled vets "machine gun shoot."

    The problem isn't you though ;) - it's the rest of the irresponsible majority.

    Personally, a mossberg is more than enough self defense for me. I use the Mark 23 because I have big hands and it's a great target shooting weapon.

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  98. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by KGIII · · Score: 1

    I highly recommend the Mossberg 550. The price is right and the reliability is exceptional. Be sure to remove the wooden dowel so that you can fit the full number of rounds into the tube.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  99. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    It's a 930 - I use it to hunt too. It certainly puts holes in things though.

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  100. Music by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    Was "I fight authority" playing - http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/j... ?

  101. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by triclipse · · Score: 1

    I hope for your sake that you are just a troll.

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    No Inflation Taxation without Representation
  102. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    your [html] skills are not very impressive.

    And so, all these "well armed" people. Deluded. Meeting up with other well armed people to talk about being well armed, shooting holes at bogeys in their minds and Ignorantly re-parsing 18th century English texts as their children run around at their feet, loving it, emulating, fingering safety locks and shooting their kid sisters in the head. It's worth bearing in mind that a well-armed militia would be called an insurgency these days and would be met with a well-armed government. It's hard for me imagine any kind of scenario where the "well armed" would actually "win' any kind of serious test of their well-armedness. In short, they'd get their arse kicked.

    The "well-armed militia" people basically have to assume that there is a simultaneous mass uprising and/or wholesale mutiny by the armed forces in order for them to succeed.

    In either of these situations, it is irrelevant whether you start off with a few guns in private hands or not.

    A true mass uprising can only be defeated by killing half the population, and that is just not the way things go. And if you don't have a mutiny, the armed forces will always outgun the few patriots with hunting rifles and handguns.

    It is incredibly easy to talk about revolution, opposing the government and so on, but to actually achieve something requires political organisation, not stockpiling a few assault rifles.

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    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  103. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by ScentCone · · Score: 1

    OK then, let's stick with the language. You're prepared to dispense with all of the founders' other personal-arms-ownership-related writings and commentary at the time because you're can't get your head around their punctuation choice as you seek to conflate and flip upside down the words they've chosen to use. But think about it, and translate some of their other ideas into more typical modern language, noting how it's actually possible to put two clauses into one sentence to improve conveying how important they are, related to one another. Like, the so-obvious-it-goes-without-saying implication baked into the 4th, as they use that amendment to also limit government power as used against the people...

    "Because it's sometimes going to be necessary for the government to search someone's house, papers, and personal effects in the course of a criminal investigation, the government shall not infringe on the privacy of one's personal home, affairs and property without showing probable cause and specific objectives." See how that flows? Breaking that up into two sentences would make it less clear the point of the amendment is to preserve individual liberty despite the need for state or federal power that might - uncontrolled by the constitution - encroach too readily on personal freedom.

    As for some of your other points:

    If this was about local militias being a counter-balance for a standing FEDERAL army, they would have said as much, if not in the amendment itself, but in the large body of other surrounding writings and debate. But almost all of the founders' writings at the time, and their commentary specifically surrounding that topic explains their urge, having raised and used such an army to settle things with the British, to not have such a thing on a permanent basis. Most figured that the best bet was to let locals (at the state level) maintain militias as they saw fit ... but anticipating exactly the sort of clamp-down on personal liberty they experienced with the Crown, they made it part of the charter of the country to point out that at no level of government could the obvious need for military units be considered grounds to prevent "the people" from keeping and bearing arms.

    And before you try to explain that "the people" doesn't refer to individuals, ask yourself why they chose exactly that same phrase ("the people") when describing who should be personally free from government over-reach when they wrote the 4th Amendment and referred to personal home, papers, etc. Read it, and the use of that phrase, in the same context.

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    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  104. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    Why? Because I'm a gun owner who can be honest about the constitution as well as the political realities of one 'Honorable' Justice Scalia?

    There are conservative Justices worthy of respect, Scalia is not one of them.

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  105. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    OK then, let's stick with the language. You're prepared to dispense with all of the founders' other personal-arms-ownership-related writings and commentary at the time because you're can't get your head around their punctuation choice as you seek to conflate and flip upside down the words they've chosen to use.

    Not at all. Suggest a writer and particular writing and we can discuss. You're being quite vague - pick something that one of the writers of the 2nd amendment wrote which you claim contradicts my statements. Your choice.

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  106. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by triclipse · · Score: 1

    No, because it is not simply the opinion of Scalia, it is the majority opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States on the most comprehensive examination of the second amendment in history and therefore the law of the land when it comes to the *individual* right to bear arms.

    Yet you can't be bothered to even read it.

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    No Inflation Taxation without Representation
  107. Re:Where does the Fed claim to get power to ban th by Assmasher · · Score: 1

    No, it isn't. The majority vote was in favor, and it was ENTIRELY written by Scalia - and yes I read it. He clearly misuses the language (not accidentally, not subtly - 100% for political purpose.)

    Don't be confused about me either, I agree with the decision, but Scalia's opinion is ridiculous.

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