4 ms·

Smart people can differentiate between a market place and the sellers themselves.

pjc50 2y ago
This is why people only blame the DZOQBX brands that sell on Amazon for review fraud and not Amazon themselves, who are blamelessly hosting all those fraudulent sellers.
- etc-hosts 2y ago
  I totally blame Amazon!
chrishare 2y ago
He tried to have people murdered for his own benefit.
- kybernetyk 2y ago
  Well, he should have get sentenced for that then. And not for running a neutral market place.
  - zanek 2y ago
    Silk Road was a neutral marketplace ? What kind of drugs are you on ? Or are you just completely not aware of what happened Ross willingly sold weapons, body parts, etc on it. He personally ok'ed the sale of these things (text proof from the prosecution)
tene80i 2y ago
Do these smart people you speak of think things that are different are entirely unrelated?
kypro 2y ago
I think there is some difference between running a marketplace which you intend for people to sell products legally on, and a marketplace which you intend and know people will sell products illegally on. Whether I agree with it or not, the law often recognises differences like this. It's not illegal to lie, but it is illegal to lie in the aid a murder. The lier themselves might not be a murderer, but the lier is knowingly facilitating murder. Ulbricht was knowingly facilitating crime in the case, and sometimes this crime would result in the deaths of people. And despite knowing all this he took no action to address it. Perhaps your point was he just didn't deserve the sentence he receive, which is fair, but he clearly did something that most people would consider very wrong. I also wonder how people would feel if Silkroad was associated more with the trading of humans, CSAM, biological weapons or more serious things rather than just drugs. I doubt the "he's just running a marketplace" reasoning would hold in most people's eyes then.
TrackerFF 2y ago
If you knowingly operate a marketplace where unsafe products are being sold, you very much bear some responsibility of those injuries. If Ross let drug dealers sell fentanyl-laced drugs, which ended up killing someone, he absolutely should be charged. Those deals wouldn't have been possible without his platform. Sure, maybe the same drug dealer would have sold the bad stuff to some other poor user outside silk road, but those dealings that ended up happening on silk road are his (Ross) to own.
- defrost 2y ago
  > If Ross let drug dealers sell fentanyl-laced drugs, which ended up killing someone, This seems unlikely given he's been imprisoned for eleven years. See: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#Fig2 https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overd... You can clearly see that "deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl)" didn't particularly alter or rise until after the 2013 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shut down of the Silk Road website and arrest of Ulbricht. If the Silk Road Marketplace had any influence on fentanyl deaths Then some kind of spike would be expected during the years of operation, 2011-2013.
- IMTDb 2y ago
  So I could bring down eBay by opening a store; selling something that I know (but eBay doesn't) is dangerous / broken / false. If that sale goes through, should eBay be taken down since they operate a marketplace where unsafe products are being sold ? eBay cannot reasonably test every single item that is sold through their platform. Same goes for every second hand marketplace in the world. They need to take some measure to address this, but cannot reduce the risk to 0. As far as I know, SilkRoad had a whole reputation system in place to allow users to flag untrustworthy sellers; that system was inline or even ahead of what many "legal" marketplace had put in place. A part of why SilkRoad was so successful is precisely because overall that reputation system allowed users to identify trustworthy sellers.
  - echoangle 2y ago
    Ebay tries to prevent you from selling illegal stuff though. Silk Road didn't. The reputation system was to prevent scams and bad quality products, not to prevent illegal transactions, right?
cbsmith 2y ago
Smart people can differentiate between a transparent marketplace which provides a net economic benefit to society from an obfuscated one which by design enables illicit activity.
- aleign 2y ago
  Smart people realize that it is not so black and white.
  - cbsmith 2y ago
    Definitely.
zanek 2y ago
your argument is actually quite dumb, because they have messages from Ross giving the OK to sell most of these things. He wasnt some hands off executive who had no idea. Smart people should be able to not equate an illegal market place with a legal market place

This is why people only blame the DZOQBX brands that sell on Amazon for review fraud and not Amazon themselves, who are blamelessly hosting all those fraudulent sellers.

etc-hosts 2y ago
I totally blame Amazon!

chrishare 2y ago

He tried to have people murdered for his own benefit.

kybernetyk 2y ago
Well, he should have get sentenced for that then. And not for running a neutral market place.
- zanek 2y ago
  Silk Road was a neutral marketplace ? What kind of drugs are you on ? Or are you just completely not aware of what happened Ross willingly sold weapons, body parts, etc on it. He personally ok'ed the sale of these things (text proof from the prosecution)

tene80i 2y ago

Do these smart people you speak of think things that are different are entirely unrelated?

kypro 2y ago

I think there is some difference between running a marketplace which you intend for people to sell products legally on, and a marketplace which you intend and know people will sell products illegally on. Whether I agree with it or not, the law often recognises differences like this. It's not illegal to lie, but it is illegal to lie in the aid a murder. The lier themselves might not be a murderer, but the lier is knowingly facilitating murder. Ulbricht was knowingly facilitating crime in the case, and sometimes this crime would result in the deaths of people. And despite knowing all this he took no action to address it. Perhaps your point was he just didn't deserve the sentence he receive, which is fair, but he clearly did something that most people would consider very wrong. I also wonder how people would feel if Silkroad was associated more with the trading of humans, CSAM, biological weapons or more serious things rather than just drugs. I doubt the "he's just running a marketplace" reasoning would hold in most people's eyes then.

TrackerFF 2y ago

If you knowingly operate a marketplace where unsafe products are being sold, you very much bear some responsibility of those injuries. If Ross let drug dealers sell fentanyl-laced drugs, which ended up killing someone, he absolutely should be charged. Those deals wouldn't have been possible without his platform. Sure, maybe the same drug dealer would have sold the bad stuff to some other poor user outside silk road, but those dealings that ended up happening on silk road are his (Ross) to own.

defrost 2y ago
> If Ross let drug dealers sell fentanyl-laced drugs, which ended up killing someone, This seems unlikely given he's been imprisoned for eleven years. See: https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates#Fig2 https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overd... You can clearly see that "deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl)" didn't particularly alter or rise until after the 2013 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shut down of the Silk Road website and arrest of Ulbricht. If the Silk Road Marketplace had any influence on fentanyl deaths Then some kind of spike would be expected during the years of operation, 2011-2013.
IMTDb 2y ago
So I could bring down eBay by opening a store; selling something that I know (but eBay doesn't) is dangerous / broken / false. If that sale goes through, should eBay be taken down since they operate a marketplace where unsafe products are being sold ? eBay cannot reasonably test every single item that is sold through their platform. Same goes for every second hand marketplace in the world. They need to take some measure to address this, but cannot reduce the risk to 0. As far as I know, SilkRoad had a whole reputation system in place to allow users to flag untrustworthy sellers; that system was inline or even ahead of what many "legal" marketplace had put in place. A part of why SilkRoad was so successful is precisely because overall that reputation system allowed users to identify trustworthy sellers.
- echoangle 2y ago
  Ebay tries to prevent you from selling illegal stuff though. Silk Road didn't. The reputation system was to prevent scams and bad quality products, not to prevent illegal transactions, right?

cbsmith 2y ago

Smart people can differentiate between a transparent marketplace which provides a net economic benefit to society from an obfuscated one which by design enables illicit activity.

aleign 2y ago
Smart people realize that it is not so black and white.
- cbsmith 2y ago
  Definitely.

zanek 2y ago

your argument is actually quite dumb, because they have messages from Ross giving the OK to sell most of these things. He wasnt some hands off executive who had no idea. Smart people should be able to not equate an illegal market place with a legal market place