A retro gaming YouTuber in Italy claims he may find yourself in courtroom and will even face attainable jail time for reviewing Android-powered handheld gaming gadgets that typically come pre-loaded with previous video games.
As reported by Android Authority, Italian YouTuber Francesco Salicini, aka As soon as Had been Nerd, claims in a video uploaded on July 14 that the Guardia di Finanza—an Italian militarized police drive that focuses on financial and monetary crimes—raided his dwelling and took round 30 consoles, together with retro emulator handhelds. The raid occurred on April 15, and police allegedly even took the YouTuber’s private telephone and didn’t return it till June.
In response to Salicini’s video explaining the whole state of affairs, legislation enforcement in Italy is seemingly not required to reveal what he’s being charged with or who particularly introduced the fees towards him till the preliminary investigation is completed. At that time, a choose would resolve to dismiss the case or take it to trial.
Kotaku has reached out to Salicini about his authorized points.
The criticism Salicini obtained from Guardia di Finanza cites him violating Article 171ter of Italian Copyright Regulation. That very same criticism additionally lists Sony and Nintendo, however it’s attainable that Italy’s Ministry of Economic system and Finance was accountable for bringing ahead the fees towards the YouTuber. Salicini believes it is because he has reviewed retro handhelds from corporations like Anbernic, which typically come pre-loaded with basic recreation ROMs. Whereas emulation is authorized, ROMs exist in a bizarre, murky gray space.
The legislation that Salicini may need violated was written in 1941 and comes with a most punishment of €15,000 and as much as three years of jail time.
Salicini has began a GoFundMe to assist cowl his authorized charges. On the fundraiser web page, he defined that the Guardia di Finanza is now taking “precautionary measures to dam all my social media channels.” He additionally says he has already contacted a protection lawyer and expects that he must go to trial.
Replace, 7/23/2025 11:30 a.m. ET: A brand new report from Android Authority claims that As soon as Had been Nerd creator Francesco Salicini shared hyperlinks on the best way to discover free retro video games on-line and linked to a weblog submit on his web site titled “The place to search out ROMs.” The submit hyperlinks to web sites the place individuals can obtain basic recreation ROMs and console BIOS. These are each protected by copyright legal guidelines. The hyperlink has since been eliminated, however the outlet reviews that it’s nonetheless seen through the Wayback Machine.
When requested for remark, the YouTuber declined because of the ongoing investigation and informed Android Authority that he would “present extra in-depth updates on the matter on [his] channels.”
The outlet additionally reviews that customers on a basic gaming discussion board discovered proof that alleges Salicini bought a few of his retro handhelds through his Telegram web page, together with gadgets loaded with ROMs. This appears to go towards his declare that he hasn’t profited from copyrighted content material.
Whereas this new data does present that Salicini isn’t fairly as harmless as he claimed, it nonetheless appears extremely ridiculous to throw somebody in jail for protecting handhelds and ROMs which can be available on-line the world over.
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