Civil Liberties

Silk Road, Online Freedom, and Why the Prosecution of Ross Ulbricht Should Worry Us All

The mother of the alleged "Dread Pirate Roberts" speaks out.

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"I am fighting for my son," says Lyn Ulbricht, the mother of 30-year-old Ross Ulbricht, who faces life in prison as the alleged creator and operator of "Silk Road," an illicit online marketplace that was shut down by the feds last year. "But [this fight] is bigger than Ross, and I think one website is far less dangerous than the government trampling on our rule of law and the consitution."

Ulbricht sat down with Reason TV's Nick Gillespie to talk about why she believes the government's case against Ross broadly violates his constitutional rights and threatens online freedom.

For more on Ross Ulbricht and the government's case against Silk Road, read Brian Doherty's feature story in the December 2014 issue of Reason magazine, "How Buying Drugs Online Became Safe, Easy, and Boring."

Shot and edited by Jim Epstein; additional camera Anthony L. Fisher.

About 22 minutes.

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