Silkroad Busted. Dpr Arrested. Site And Servers Taken Over.

[trae901]

yeah i seen this on the new the other day. I am surprised it took them this long to bust them. But, we all know something similar will be back shortly lol.

 

[MedicatedM]

BMR is still up and running, same shit...well, better actually

 

[Packrat]

Hi Jewy,

In your post above, you wrote, "The one effect that I do foresee coming out of this is further growth in membership, as well as vendor participation here on DBG."   I have a question and I ask out of ignorance.  Do vendors participate on DBG directly masquerading as members?   If so, would you and Heis know?   

For example, I know in the real estate market, when one posts or puts up an advertisement for a property they are required by some US state laws to identify themselves as a licensed brokers.   Yeah, I know we're a long way from home on that comment, but if vendors start participating where they were not in the past, how would you control the content?   

You also wrote, "SR was a direct market place. Sort of the pharmaceutical equivalent of a flea market, which is distinctly different that DBG, which is a community and message board for the sharing of information only, with no direct commerce taking place, which is an extremely important distinction." 

Should vendors participate, identifying themselves as such, how would you prevent certain vendors from dumping their lists on the site turning DBG into the very thing we want to avoid?

Regards,

PR

 

[Jewbacca]

Hi Jewy,

In your post above, you wrote, "The one effect that I do foresee coming out of this is further growth in membership, as well as vendor participation here on DBG."   I have a question and I ask out of ignorance.  Do vendors participate on DBG directly masquerading as members?   If so, would you and Heis know?   

For example, I know in the real estate market, when one posts or puts up an advertisement for a property they are required by some US state laws to identify themselves as a licensed brokers.   Yeah, I know we're a long way from home on that comment, but if vendors start participating where they were not in the past, how would you control the content?   

You also wrote, "SR was a direct market place. Sort of the pharmaceutical equivalent of a flea market, which is distinctly different that DBG, which is a community and message board for the sharing of information only, with no direct commerce taking place, which is an extremely important distinction." 

Should vendors participate, identifying themselves as such, how would you prevent certain vendors from dumping their lists on the site turning DBG into the very thing we want to avoid?

Regards,

PR

Well, to begin with, it would be illogical of me to claim that there are never vendors who pose as members here on DBG, as there's simply no way to be certain of that at all times, given the availability of proxies and other forms of anonymity tools. However, any member found to be "peddling their wares" here on DBG, either covertly or in the open, have been, and will continue to be, swiftly disciplined and / or banned from the community. That being said, it also has been, and will continue to be, our firm and absolute policy that vendors DO NOT participate as what I call "social", or full members here on DBG. Vendor accounts are permitted, but only to monitor their own threads, and to post replies to customer questions specific to their products / services only. As to question two, that's essentially a non-issue, given our policy on vendor participation. As previously stated, vendor participation is limited to answering direct questions regarding ONLY their products and services, and it is also our standing policy to NOT allow product lists / menus to be posted on DBG under any circumstances. We are, and will remain, an information sharing resource and community of friends only.

Oh, and one other point to bear in mind is that SR transactions were consummated directly through the SR website, in similar fashion to Ebay, to allow for them to scrape out their commission. Vendor transactions will never be consummated (payments made, orders submitted, etc.) here on DBG, nor directly through DBG in any way, shape or form, which is one of, if not the most important factor in maintaining the distinction between 1st Amendment protected free speech resource and material participant in any suspect activity as a direct marketplace.

 

[Packrat]

Jewy, thanks so much for the prompt response. I realize you can't prevent a vendor from becoming a member and catch everything all of the time.  I didn't realize there were specific DBG rules for vendor participation - that's good. I also didn't understand how SR operated and now understand.

Regards,

PR

 

[_X_]

I wish I had more greens, great posts.
 

 

[Jewbacca]

Jewy, thanks so much for the prompt response. I realize you can't prevent a vendor from becoming a member and catch everything all of the time. I didn't realize there were specific DBG rules for vendor participation - that's good. I also didn't understand how SR operated and now understand.

Regards,

PR

No worries PR, that's what this middle aged flea bag is here for!

 

[MedicatedM]

do any vendors actually have vendor accounts here? Ive yet to see any, would be nice tho..I think itd keep a lot of trash out of threads as far as rhetorical questions. well that could also just be accomplished by reading but that doesn't seem too popular on forums in general

 

[Jewbacca]

do any vendors actually have vendor accounts here? Ive yet to see any, would be nice tho..I think itd keep a lot of trash out of threads as far as rhetorical questions. well that could also just be accomplished by reading but that doesn't seem too popular on forums in general

LOL, yes, you make a valid literary point my good medicated man. As for vendor accounts, they're allowed, although Admin has a policy restricting vendor / members post activity to only answering questions posted in their thread. I remember a few lesser known vendors applying for accounts, but to my knowledge, none have ever posted in their threads, and I don't believe there are any currently active vendor accounts, at least not that I've seen. To be honest, it seems to have been more a lack of interest on vendor's parts as opposed to any objection to them having accounts, outside of the one limitation previously noted.

 

[Heisenberg / HNB]

Looks like "they" are having a little trouble seizing all of D.P.R's funds:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/168139-fbi-unable-to-seize-600000-bitcoins-from-silk-road-operator

 

[Jewbacca]

Looks like "they" are having a little trouble seizing all of D.P.R's funds:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/168139-fbi-unable-to-seize-600000-bitcoins-from-silk-road-operator

Another issue they're going to have, even if they are ultimately successful in completing the transfer, is in monetizing the Bitcoins and cashing them out without imploding the market value. It's just like any other stock or commodity. You dump 5% of any commodity or security on the market at one time, and the price will tank. It's all in the financial structure my friend, all in the structure. Had DPR had a good merchant / investment banker, they'd still be looking for the first penny, but hey, I'm just a Wookie. What do I know?!

 

[High Tide]

I don't now much about the laws regarding these types of things, but as far as vendor accounts it would seem to me they best be operated on their own website. That would make the distinction between free speech and co-conspirator even stronger. I know some vendors don't have websites, and really can't, which made the Mex section so hard to get what is known to be true and honest feedback. I never needed the wares they offer but felt it was wrong to dismiss a claim of not getting orders when nobody could really know for sure. It made some members look like agents when coming to the defense of those vendors. Even though I've never used any of them it just didn't look right to dismiss a claim of undelivered products when only the two people involved know for sure what happened. I believe that situation has been worked out, as one who doesn't use a vendor section I quit following all the topics but I haven't heard any complaints through the grapevine.

But back on this topic, it was indeed wonderful to have a mod with the foresight to shut down talk about TSR and all topics related to them like BC's and +or. It's best for our members to have LE look here and say, "Well, they're only talking about small stuff, no need to spend resources concentrating on them. Especially when we have this brilliant idiot who is not smart enough to think deleting something means we can't retrieve it." IMO the best way to delete something that damning from a hard drive is with a hammer. I wouldn't trust even military grade deletion on a topic that severe.

Also great to have another mod who knows a wee bit about law too. Seems to know enough that he got the degree and not get in the business, preferring to practice something akin to football on ice and then making money in the background of sports. Where you don't have to risk a life altering injury to get a paycheck. At least that's my understanding of the Wookies business practice.

Whether that part is close or not doesn't matter, having them on our side helping us and DBG, is all that really matters. +1 to both of you guys. 

 

[Sunny1]

UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf (dropbox)

OR

Ulbricht-Criminal-Complaint-Silk-Road (scribd)

Real Name: Ross William Ulbricht

Profit Made: Same as Walter White (of Breaking Bad), about 80MM (in BC value)

Juicy stuff, page 22 - 

Wow zero, thx for that excerpt...reads like a script. Fascinating. 

 

[kicksandkush]

If they can make a movie about Facebook they can make a great movie about this! I read this evening there has been 8 arrests so far of users/vendors in the uk/us

 

[halflife]

http://m.phys.org/news/2013-10-silk-road-unmasks-misconceptions-anonymity.html

Be wary of all, but don't make yourself crazy.

Thanks to you folks I was able to assess SR & made a decision to avoid.

-----

BTW, I owe a lot of responses to people & a lot of feedback to provide.

Be back when I feel a little better...

1/2

 

[Jewbacca]

http://www.eonline.com/news/466393/society-x-with-laura-ling-gives-a-rare-look-into-college-drug-use-and-drug-fads
 
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/jansing-and-co/53166068#53166068
 
 
Sorry the half hour show was on E network and it's Luara Ling believe it is an on going show. I hope not breaking any rules?

Nope, you're good. Thanks for sharing the video links. Getting ready to watch them in a few minutes.

 

[_X_]

1.4 trillion dollars for the war on drugs well spent.  Has anyone but me actually ever read the @n@rchist c@@kb@@k?  This is just another day in the park, the only difference, IMO is that there a lot more people alive today as compared to 40 years ago.  If a guy wants 2cp, fuck man, let him buy it at the 2cp market and have a blast. Sorry I have to stop now or I'll start gettin all political.  Good posts peeples

 

[halflife]

From USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/09/silk-road-drug-ny/2953197/

 

[Jewbacca]

From USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/09/silk-road-drug-ny/2953197/

I'd sure hate to be a now-former SR vendor right about now, presuming the evidentiary claims are accurate. And I did a double take when I read that DPR was being represented by a public defender. Likely trying to avoid exposing his assets by retaining a defense team, but I think I'd take that risk if I were facing these charges. Putting his life in the hands of a PD doesn't seem like the wisest move, but then again, that's just one Wookie's opinion.

 

[bigtimeoxyhunter]

Damn. I have always been a fan and supporter I but tried never to get to involved to deeply. Glad I didn't.  I haven't visited for a long while. There have been so many false alarms that I backed off. It always seemed like the whole thing was to good to be true.