A YouTuber may end up facing jail time due to reviewing handheld devices which on occasion come pre-loaded with old games.
The YouTuber in question is Francesco Salicini – aka Once Were Nerd – from Italy, who said customs enforcement officers from the Guardia di Finanza turned up with a search warrant back in April of this year, with the intent to investigate promotion of pirated copyrighted materials (thanks, Android Authority).
Salicini is accused of having violated copyright law, mainly related to the “sponsorship” of consoles that can also be purchased with micro SD cards full of games.
Salicini said more than 30 consoles were “confiscated” from his collection, including ANBERNIC, Powkiddy, and TrimUI gaming handhelds. At this time, the authorities also took Salicini’s phone, along with transcripts of his conversations with these gaming handheld makers. His phone was subsequently returned two months later, on 18th June.
While the YouTuber complied with the authorities as he did not believe he had done anything wrong, Salicini is presently accused of violating Article 171-ter of the Italian Copyright Law – that is to say, the Law for the Protection of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights – which holds a maximum penalty of €15,000 (that’s just shy of £12,000 here in the UK). Additionally, Salicini could face up to three years’ jail time.
In a video uploaded by Salicini (see below), the creator spoke of his plight. He said Italian law enforcement isn’t required to disclose what exactly the charges are, or even who has brought them, until the initial investigation is finished. After that time, a judge could then decide to either dismiss the case, or take it to trial.
Salicini has now started a GoFundMe to help cover his legal fees.
Here, the YouTuber noted: “I have never ‘sponsored’ but ‘reviewed’ with the utmost objectivity citing both Pros and Cons of each device” (via machine translation).
Continuing, Salicini said: “To date, the Guardia di Finanza, as a precautionary measure, is also proceeding to obscure all my social channels, thus making it impossible for me to continue to bring other content that is not the subject of this investigation.
“Unfortunately this proceeding will almost certainly lead to a trial, I have already had to contact a defense lawyer and you can imagine how many expenses I will have to face to deal with this, in my opinion, injustice, since none of my content (more than 200 videos) violates YouTube’s policies.”
Eurogamer has asked Salicini for comment on his current situation and legal issues.
In related news, earlier this month the FBI said it’s now seized “multiple” ROM piracy sites.