Right now, if you wanted to, you could log onto the internet, order a bunch of drugs, and have them delivered to your doorstep. There's none of the awkwardness of dealing with your shady, coked-out bartender, but all of the legal risk: If the cops found out, you'd still go to court. Not so for Random Darknet Shopper.

Late last year, a group of artists released a piece of software they'd programmed into the wild, giving it an allowance in Bitcoin and allowing it to randomly select one item for purchase from the Silk Road-style deep web marketplace Agora each week. Perhaps inevitably, Random Darknet Shopper eventually had some ecstasy delivered to the gallery where the artists were operating, and in January, Swiss authorities confiscated the bot and all of its purchases. (The haul also included a counterfeit passport and a pair of Air Yeezys.)

This week, the artists announced that they—and their bot—were getting off scot-free. Random Darknet Shopper and all of its purchases save the ecstasy were released from custody, and prosecutors dropped criminal charges in the name of art. The collective, called !Mediengruppe Bitnik, wrote on its website:

At the same time we also received the order for withdrawal of prosecution. In the order for withdrawal of prosecution the public prosecutor states that the possession of Ecstasy was indeed a reasonable means for the purpose of sparking public debate about questions related to the exhibition. The public prosecution also asserts that the overweighing interest in the questions raised by the art work «Random Darknet Shopper» justify the exhibition of the drugs as artefacts, even if the exhibition does hold a small risk of endangerment of third parties through the drugs exhibited.

Domagoj Smoljo of !Mediengruppe Bitnik celebrated the decision in an interview with Hopes&Fears: "It was an art piece. You should be able to do things within the field of art that you can't elsewhere."

Image via !Mediengruppe Bitnik. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.