Dark Web Shopping Bots Using Bitcoin Are Back, Who’s to Blame for Illegal Purchases?

The Random Darknet Shopper, an automated online bot that searches the Darknet and buys random items, is back, spending $100 worth of Bitcoin in a week. It was absent for a while last year when it was temporarily confiscated by Swiss justice. Last week Digital Trends reported that a bot built by European art group !Mediengruppe Bitnik bought a fake Lacoste polo shirt for $35.

The bot was programmed to randomly select an item on the Darknet and then transport it to the art group's exhibition space. The !Mediengruppe Bitnik website describes the bot as a "random Darknet shopper" that is used to explore the Darknet. The random purchase behavior ensures a wide range of Darknet items.

The robot turned to Alpha Bay Market

The bots bought items from Agora Market from October 2014 to January 2015. Agora stopped serving customers in September. The bots are now placing orders on Alpha Bay, which Art Group says is also a darknet market.

The return of the robot doesn’t mean the legal troubles caused by the last purchase of MDMA pills are over.

The robot first visited the Darknet in September last year. A month later, it ordered 10 ecstasy pills, which the artist included in the exhibition. The prosecutor's office in St. Gallen confiscated the pills and the robot. Swiss authorities confirmed that the pills contained MDMA.

In April, authorities returned the robot, along with the destroyed pill packaging. Police said the pills had not been opened and the artists had no intention of selling or consuming them, according to CCN.

Who is legally responsible?

The Guardian asked last year: If a robot makes an illegal purchase, who is legally responsible?

The $35 purchase of a counterfeit Lacoste Polo shirt last week raised no legal issues.

The Guardian reported that the purchase list displayed last year also did not raise any legal issues and included counterfeit Diesel jeans, a storage tin, a baseball cap with a camera inside, a pair of Nike trainers, Chesterfield cigars, a decoy letter - stating if your address has been manipulated, a counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbag, and a set of fire brigade master keys.

But as it continues to buy both legal and illegal items, robot shopping will again raise legal issues.

There was no fraud in any sales.

The project aims to understand how anonymous participants build trust in a market that could potentially involve illegal activity. The Guardian noted that in a demonstration last year where robots bought items, none of the transactions involved fraud.

Artists Domagoj Smoljo and Carmen Weisskopf of Mediengruppe Bitnik told the Guardian they were not afraid of the accusations against the robot. They were responsible for the robot's actions, but Switzerland's constitution states that art in the public interest is permitted.

Original article: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/darknet-shopper-robot-back-business-culpable-illegal-purchases/
By ELLIOT MARAS
Translator: gsj
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information