Should the founder of Silk Road have gotten his sentence?

Naru · May 31, 2015, 02:58:05 PM

In case you haven't heard, the man behind the creation of Silk Road, has gotten life in prison without parole. The best imprisonment for his would've been 20 years, but that's out the window now.

Thoughts about the sentence?

ΚΑΤΑΝΑΛΩΤΗΣ · May 31, 2015, 02:59:06 PM

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Turkey · May 31, 2015, 03:03:01 PM

Absolutely. The guy hosted drug trafficking, child porn, weapons trafficking, and potentially (though I believe unconfirmed) criminals for hire including murder. The guy's a scumbag, and there's really no way to excuse it.

Naru · May 31, 2015, 03:05:51 PM

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on May 31, 2015, 03:03:01 PM

Absolutely. The guy hosted drug trafficking, child porn, weapons trafficking, and potentially (though I believe unconfirmed) criminals for hire including murder. The guy's a scumbag, and there's really no way to excuse it.

I don't remember reading about CP in the few articles I've read about it >_>

More Than Mortal · May 31, 2015, 03:06:40 PM

Life without parole is excessive for any crime, but--as Turkey notes--playing host to things like weapon trafficking is a fucking crime and can't be justified on the back of some nonsense libertarian rhetoric.

Not too concerned with the drug trafficking, though.

challengerX · May 31, 2015, 03:09:39 PM

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Flee · May 31, 2015, 03:11:14 PM

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Flee · May 31, 2015, 03:11:40 PM

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More Than Mortal · May 31, 2015, 03:13:36 PM

Quote from: Flee on May 31, 2015, 03:11:40 PM

Life without parole is excessive, but the guy definitely deserves a harsh sentence.

Flee, stop being a statist shill.

Azumarill · May 31, 2015, 03:20:57 PM

Only the DEA is allowed to sell drugs in bulk in this country. Silly dread pirate.

On a more serious note, I dunno how much this played into his sentencing but the Silk Road did host links for hitmen, and I think the dread pirate Roberts even put a few hits out himself. I don't think he should be sentenced for this long for just hosting a third party drug trafficking operation but there was some other really shifty shit going down on the Silk Road.

challengerX · May 31, 2015, 03:29:34 PM

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Turkey · May 31, 2015, 03:46:31 PM

Quote from: Flee on May 31, 2015, 03:11:14 PM

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on May 31, 2015, 03:03:01 PM
Absolutely. The guy hosted drug trafficking, child porn, weapons trafficking, and potentially (though I believe unconfirmed) criminals for hire including murder. The guy's a scumbag, and there's really no way to excuse it.
Pretty sure there wasn't any child porn on Silk Road, though.

Definitely was. Ostensibly prohibited by the terms of service, but it was prolific.

Flee · May 31, 2015, 03:47:31 PM

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Flee · May 31, 2015, 03:49:24 PM

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More Than Mortal · May 31, 2015, 04:10:20 PM

Quote from: Flee on May 31, 2015, 03:47:31 PM

Privatisation is good to some extent.

We should catch a movie sometime.

Just purely out of interest, how do you vote in Belgian elections?

Mattie G Indahouse · May 31, 2015, 04:50:38 PM

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on May 31, 2015, 03:03:01 PM

child porn, weapons trafficking,

I looked the site up and the things it prohibited were things like that.

Flee · May 31, 2015, 04:59:06 PM

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challengerX · May 31, 2015, 04:59:08 PM

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More Than Mortal · May 31, 2015, 05:04:47 PM

Quote from: Flee on May 31, 2015, 04:59:06 PM

Quote from: Meta Cognition on May 31, 2015, 04:10:20 PM
Quote from: Flee on May 31, 2015, 03:47:31 PM
Privatisation is good to some extent.
We should catch a movie sometime.

Just purely out of interest, how do you vote in Belgian elections?
Depends on the issues, really. Voted for the Greens when I turned 18 and for the CD&V (Democratic Flemish Party) last year. I had a look around but couldn't find an English overview of their recent policies, so this will have to do if you care to translate it.

They're basically a pretty moderate party. Socially progressive and still somewhat conservative on the financial side. Very much in support of health care, access to education, social services and all that, but conservative in the sense of taxes (as in not taxing companies to the point that they leave the country). They're very big on supporting innovation, the (albeit well regulated) free market and proper education. A lot of the money they'll need will come from giving the states (Flandres and Wallonia) more power. In case you're unaware, Wallonia is pretty much dragging down the entire country in a lot of ways. Reforming the tax and social / health care regime while giving more power to Flandres are two of their major ideas.

That aside, they're pro-EU and pay a lot of attention to improving the legal system, which goes well by me. One of their main politicians is a man called Koen Geens, who used to be a professor of mine. Guy went to my university and Harvard, won numerous prizes with his doctorate, founded an incredibly prestigious and successful law firm, and went into politics while still teaching and being a high-end lawyer. I know that personal "bias" shouldn't mean a thing when it comes to politics, but he is genuinely one of the most sincere, friendly and extremely intelligent people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. He's been our federal minister of finance and is now the current minister of justice, looking to reform much of our justice system for the better, and has received a great deal of praise for all of that.

Overall a solid party with good ideas and no scandals. If you were Belgian, I'd probably expect you to go a bit more right / libertarian (N-VA, for example), but I think the CD&V wouldn't be a terrible choice for you either.

I have to ask, just how "Christian" are Christian Democratic groups on the Continent?

Flee · May 31, 2015, 05:19:07 PM

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More Than Mortal · May 31, 2015, 05:28:38 PM

Quote from: Flee on May 31, 2015, 05:19:07 PM

Is it any different in the UK?

Kind of. We don't have any, even nominally, religious parties. However, quite a few Tory ministers are open Anglicans, especially Michael Gove. David Cameron attends church, I believe, but I'd pen him for more of a fellow traveller than a committed Christian. But religion is such a non-issue in British culture that it's essentially just a nod to tradition; I don't think any politician is evangelical to a noticeable degree, and preserving the Church of England is more partisan conservatism than theological devotion.

And we do have Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords, who're bishops.

BrenMan 94 · May 31, 2015, 07:13:20 PM

I have to wait for more details to come out before I can form an honest opinion. The Silk Road itself wasn't a bad thing warranting life in prison, but if it's true that he hired people he believed to be hitmen to kill six individuals then his sentence, while excessive, would be more deserving. He's also charged with computer hacking, which is such a vague term that I can't determine whether or not that was a violation of the NAP unless I know exactly what it entailed. The money-laundering charge is laughable because I'm more than sure it was brought up because Ulbricht's 144,000 bitcoins couldn't be taxed.

cxfhvxgkcf-56:7 · May 31, 2015, 07:15:23 PM

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cxfhvxgkcf-56:7 · May 31, 2015, 07:18:06 PM

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DAS B00T x2 · May 31, 2015, 07:20:35 PM

Quote from: kill yourself on May 31, 2015, 07:15:23 PM

Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on May 31, 2015, 03:03:01 PM
Absolutely. The guy hosted drug trafficking, child porn, weapons trafficking, and potentially (though I believe unconfirmed) criminals for hire including murder. The guy's a scumbag, and there's really no way to excuse it.
Whoa whoa whoa. Silk Road had a very strict policy of no advertisements for child porn, weapons, and assassinations. Don't know where you got that misinformation.

Four Chan better enforces their no CP policy than they did.

cxfhvxgkcf-56:7 · May 31, 2015, 07:24:26 PM

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Turkey · May 31, 2015, 07:26:40 PM

Quote from: kill yourself on May 31, 2015, 07:24:26 PM

Quote from: DAS "كافر" B00T on May 31, 2015, 07:20:35 PM
Quote from: kill yourself on May 31, 2015, 07:15:23 PM
Quote from: HurtfulTurkey on May 31, 2015, 03:03:01 PM
Absolutely. The guy hosted drug trafficking, child porn, weapons trafficking, and potentially (though I believe unconfirmed) criminals for hire including murder. The guy's a scumbag, and there's really no way to excuse it.
Whoa whoa whoa. Silk Road had a very strict policy of no advertisements for child porn, weapons, and assassinations. Don't know where you got that misinformation.
Four Chan better enforces their no CP policy than they did.
Yeah but they didn't endorse it which seems to be what people are trying to say.

That's kind of like torrenting sites saying they don't endorse piracy.

Mr. Psychologist · May 31, 2015, 07:45:21 PM

Yup.

A parasite profiting off the suffering of other people, I'm going to struggle to find sympathy here.

Azumarill · May 31, 2015, 07:45:36 PM

Quote from: kill yourself on May 31, 2015, 07:18:06 PM

Actually I'm pretty sure the head honcho of silk road was never tracked down, only the people under him. Heck the FBI isn't sure if he's one person.

The dread pirate Roberts isn't a single person, but ulbricht was probably set up as the fall guy anyway

Pendulate · May 31, 2015, 08:35:17 PM

Didn't he order hits on people?