"Before the verdict came in, I talked to Ryan E. Long, a lawyer affiliated with Stanford's Center on Internet and Society, about the potential impact of this case on future internet-related trials. He zeroed in on the importance of authenticating the evidence that the government showed, and making sure it was obtained without violating the Constitution.
"How did they get this information, and did they breach the law by getting it? I think that will set the precedent with future electronic cases about how the government got the information and whether they did it legally," he said. The issue is, he continued, "whether the government obtained the evidence that they wish to use to prove this narrative, [Ulbricht's guilt] such as the identity of the server, in a lawful way consistent with the Fourth Amendment, among other things.""