

Everything we know about Ross Ulbricht, outdoorsy libertarian behind Silk Road - RougeFemme
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/03/everything-we-know-about-ross-ulbricht-the-outdoorsy-libertarian-behind-silk-road/?hpid=z11

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bcrescimanno
Let the character assassination of libertarians begin. To me, that's the most
discouraging thing I'm seeing coming from media coverage of Ulbricht's arrest.
Yes, the site was facilitating illegal commerce; but was it immoral? Evil?
These are far more difficult questions to answer specifically because people
will have their own opinions.

Unfortunately, this feels like the whole situation being reduced to, "those
damn libertarians and their evil drugs!"

~~~
rayiner
I empathize on libertarians on this one, but at the same time as a statist I'm
gleeful that it took no time at all for this "free" system to devolve into an
amateur crime lord calling out hits on people.

DPR isn't just a libertarian. He's bad in the ways that highlight the
shortcomings of anarcho libertarianism. People aren't good and presented with
opportunity, they act quickly to aggrandize themselves using whatever means
are necessary.

~~~
arto
_Alledgedly_ calling out hits on people. Let's try and maintain at least the
pretense of the principle of presumption of innocence, eh?

~~~
tptacek
People are presumed innocent in the criminal justice system. It's also
important that the press be cautious about drawing conclusions. But
individuals uninvolved in the case are not required to genuflect to a
presumption of innocence.

~~~
arto
You're free to do as you please, but I for one believe the presumption of
innocence to be a useful stance both in the courtroom as well as beyond it;
particularly so when the accuser is a party known to have previously routinely
lied in order to secure false convictions:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Laboratory#Controversy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Laboratory#Controversy)

------
conductor
So, DPR was identified because Ross made really amateur level mistakes for a
man in his position:

1\. Was using the same pseudonym in several places.

2\. Was advertising the Silk Road. He asked people what do they think about
it: "Let me know what you guys think." [1, page 25] - this just suggests that
he is connected with it.

3\. Used his name (then changed to the same pseudonym he was using in other
places) to ask a question about how to connect to Tor using Curl in PHP. He
just could ask how to connect to a SOCKS5 server using Curl in PHP whatsoever
avoiding mentioning the Tor.

4\. Was not using Tor in public WiFi network at cafe.

5\. Was giving interviews, long interviews. FBI could correlate his style of
writing with what he writes under his own identity.

6\. The most grave mistake: he posted his personal Gmail account using his
pseudonym (which he was using to advertise the Silk Road) in the Forum asking
for a "IT pro in the Bitcoin community" [1, page 26].

[1] - [http://cryptome.org/2013/10/fbi-silk-
road.pdf](http://cryptome.org/2013/10/fbi-silk-road.pdf)

~~~
dpapathanasiou
Number 3 was huge because the stackoverflow answer was used on the site nearly
as-is:

 _Based on forensic analysis of the Silk Road Web Server, I know that the
computer code ... includes a customized PHP strip based on 'curl' that is
functionally very similar to the computer code described in Ulbricht's posting
on Stack Overflow, and includes several lines of code that are identical to
lines of code quoted in the posting._

[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/10/02/silk_road...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/10/02/silk_road_s_dread_pirate_ross_ulbricht_asked_stack_overflow_question_under.html)

~~~
gojomo
That code-identicality alone doesn't necessarily mean much: lots of people
come later and will use the public question/answer code in their own work.
(Only together with the other pseudonym correlations, it means more.)

~~~
dpapathanasiou
Right, it wasn't _just_ the fact that the code was the same; it was that he
initially posted those questions under his real name.

~~~
Blahah
Absolutely none of this is evidence of his guilt, it's all just very loose
circumstantial suggestion. If this is all it takes to convince people of
someone's guilt in a huge criminal case, we're all doomed.

~~~
mseebach
"Probable cause" is all you need for a warrant. With the warrant you secure
the "beyond any reasonable doubt" evidence.

------
gbrindisi
I am going to be naive here but could someone explain to me how it is possible
to legally dox a person this way when there still isn't a court sentence that
demonstrate that this guy is indeed DPR?

~~~
TrainedMonkey
"the man federal prosecutors say is behind the infamous contraband market Silk
Road" \- note how they never claim he actually is DPR. They merely "report"
that federal prosecutors say that.

~~~
Blahah
except in the title, where they explicitly claim he was behind Silk Road.

~~~
genwin
Good point. If he's acquitted he'll have a good case of slander.

------
ffrryuu
And not a single banker is in jail.

------
iterationx
He wrote an interesting manifesto on freedom,
[https://www.facebook.com/notes/ross-ulbricht/thoughts-on-
fre...](https://www.facebook.com/notes/ross-ulbricht/thoughts-on-
freedom/108140845903395) unfortunately soon he will find himself locked in a
cage.

~~~
mpyne
How does his "interesting manifesto" contrast with the freedom of persons not
to be murdered because they are inconvenient to his business?

I don't think it's unfortunate at all that he'll be locked up. He's a
murdering thug, at least twice over by his own admission.

~~~
slackson
Wasn't the data the guy was blackmailing him with the information on sellers
on the site? Between 100+ people getting 5+ year jail sentences (arbitrary
numbers here) and two people dying, the later might seem more acceptable to a
strong libertarian.

~~~
mpyne
> Between 100+ people getting 5+ year jail sentences (arbitrary numbers here)
> and two people dying, the later might seem more acceptable to a strong
> libertarian.

Perhaps. That's even more an indictment on libertarianism if true, but I'll
let the more educated libertarians decide whether that's true or whether DPR
is not a True Scotsman.

------
jessaustin
I have to think "Ben Tepfer", "KZ Inoue", "Ann Gokieli", and the rest of the
people on the sidebar in the LinkedIn screenshot would have appreciated a more
judicious crop. That's pretty unprofessional, even for the Post.

