YouTuber Faces Possible Jail Time for Reviewing Gaming Handhelds
Forget copyright strikes, a retro gaming YouTuber faces possible jail time for reviewing gaming handhelds
Man using a computer gets arrested for using a computer on YouTube. Amazon, seller of disgusting emulation game stealing piracy devices, is completely innocent.
The creator, assuming he didn’t do anything wrong, complied with demands, providing full transcripts of his conversations and chats with gaming handheld manufacturers. The officers also took his phone, promising to return it in a few days. It was returned two months later, on June 15.
Oof. A reminder to not talk to cops, kids.
Never give them evidence against you. They should do the work themselves.
Emulators. Are. Legal.
This was settled with the Sony/Bleem debacle. Bleem only provided the software by which one could emulate PSX games but never the ISO files themselves. Those files could only be provided by the end user regardless of how they obtained them. Sony, of course, couldn't give less of a shit and sued them anyways. Judges, however, took Bleem's side on the basis that no copyright infringement had been committed on their behalf. Although Bleem would ultimately win ever lawsuit brought against them, the sheer size of the legal costs led to their closure which makes you wonder if that was Sony's endgame the whole time.
Here's a video by Nerrel about the legality of emulation. It's from 2020 but it is still relevant.
That is a lot of text for something that has no relevance in this case, since it is from Italy and not the US.
Different countries have different laws, and court cases in the US has no effect on Italian law.
This specific case is in Italy, though.
And it is not about the emulation by itself but that some of the consoles came with roms.
And I'm my moral code. Make the games available or stfu, we're going to emulate it.
The legality of ANYTHING, is subject to local jurisdiction, in this case it will be in EU/Italy. Also, while emulators may not be illegal, copying ROMs that are copyrighted to Nintendo of whichever may be the company that published said ROM, are.
Don't the losers of the lawsuit pay all legal fees?
Not typically--which is a major driver of frivolous lawsuits.
Didn't Italy elect a far right neo-fascist government?
Hopefully gamers take notes.
Italy has always been a bit odd - I remember a group of scientists were convicted of manslaughter because they didn't predict an earthquake that killed a few hundred people.
They did! I’m curious about the overlap between retro-gaming enthusiasts and fascists though. Do fascists really care about art and its preservation?
They're notorious book burners, so I imagine not.
Fascists care about setting precedent and "purchased vaguely illegal content" is some great precedent.
This just also is a smart attack because the usual crowd is going to come out to insist that it is OWN's fault for playing Nintendo games and piracy is the greatest problem facing the world and that Nintendo Switch Online(TM) is a great service.
Its the same as when the christofacists attacked Pornhub via Visa et al in the US. Everyone hates revenge porn and child porn (well, except for certain heads of state...) so nobody is going to complain but it made it very clear the path to destroy content that goes against the fascists' interests.
The officials have access to the devices, they consumed the illegal content and then documented their findings. This is considered a review and the officials should be charged under the copyright law.
Almost like illegally obtaining evidence
Sounds like a massive overreaction and abuse of century-old laws.
If those devices are so bad, why not forbid selling them in Italy, instead of punishing people who buy them completely legally. Imagine going through all of this because you bought a laptop and posted a review online.
Italy is a joke. Our politicians call us lazy, the rich go on TV crying because they can't find people willing to work for minimal (or below) wage, and then a young person manages to carve themselves a path outside of the 'norm', our state immediately shows up and curb stomps them.
I was talking with a colleague of mine the other day. They work two jobs to make a living. The state taxed them so much, they are paying more for the second job that they are gaining, basically working for free. Tax the poor, let the rich off the hook.
Fuck Italy.
Our politicians call us lazy, the rich go on TV crying because they can't find people willing to work for minimal (or below) wage
This sounds like Germany. I think it's the norm in many countries by now. We already entered late stage capitalism, at this point it will only become worse.
Up to 20k per year you pay 23%, from 20k to 32k you pay 25% and from 32k to 50k per year you pay 35% income tax. If my research is correct, the main job emplayer keeps the tax. So the second employer should keep those 23% as well. As long as your colleague earns less than 50k from both of his jobs, he only has to pay 12% of the second job‘s yearly income as taxes out of his own pocket.
So mathematically it should not be possible to pay to be able to work.
Unless he’s "self employed“ but then he’s allowed that employer to fist him lubeless.
It's a bit of a complicated situation and I wouldn't go into much detail, but basically, they live in Italy, but one of their job is (work from home) in another country. They are taxed by the other country, then taxed by Italy as well.
After that, Italy fined them on some bullshit grounds and forced them to pay a ridiculous sum of money. Needless to say, they never attempted to skirt or evade taxes or anything. They worked their ass off and the country said "fuck you in particular" because Italy.
I specifically remember them telling me that, despite being half Italian, they wanted to live in Italy because they love the country and have friends and family here, but now they don't know what to do. It's heartbreaking seeing how our country treats its citizens, then our politicians going on TV and lamenting the fact that young people choose to go live elsewhere. Italy as a country doesn't see you as a citizen to protect, it just wants to squeeze you dry and leave you for dead.
That's still not how progressive tax systems work. In your example, it's the first 20k is taxed 23%, then the next 32k is taxed 25%, then the next 50k is taxed 35%.
So if you made 52k in a year, the first 20k yields 4.6k in taxes, then the remaining 32k yields 8k in taxes. Leading to a total of 12.6k in taxes, or an effective rate of ~24.2%
That's really an unnecessary escalation
An unnecessary emulation too! Of fascists.
Nintendo really gets on my nerves. It's like they want folks to hate Nintendo. They could had gone after Amazon but instead chose to go after the little guy.
the Italian Copyright Law. This law, which was originally written in 1941
Draconian copyright laws, government overreach, and fascism. Name a more iconic trio.
Shipping the handheld with a SD card loaded with pirated ROMs is asking for trouble, why target the youtuber though?
Yeah, it's weird bcs as I understand that copyright law from 1941 is for the actual distribution, and if he never got paid by anyone in the distribution chain (tho as understand he did get some free consoles to review), then he wasn't part of it - just filming himself saying what can be bought on the market.
The exact specifics change country by country, in Italy there are a lot of horseshit rules around it because one of the most powerful unions lobbies (our equivalent of the RIAA) for more exclusive control over media at every chance they get, to the point that you're not allowed to distribute even your own media through physical sales without paying a cut.
a decent accountant could persuasively argue those free consoles were payment.
Almost certainly there was some kind of pressure by somebody well connected on some higher up in the Italian Justice or Political Authorities of the
"Something Must Be Done!"
kind.
Followed by whomever was the last link in the shit chain coming from above, following the mental process of:
"This is Something we can do"
"We shall do This!"
It's pretty standard in the stuff which isn't their daily bread and butter that Justice Systems are driven by cronyism at the higher level and cover-my-ass at the lower level, especially in countries which have a culture of Cronyism.
(People are people, and even in Justice Systems they're no more impeccably honest and fair than elsewhere - in fact positions with power tend to attract people who are less honest and fair than average, IMHO).
Often this shit gets overturned when it gets to court or on at least appeal (generally the system gets less crooked as you go up, though I know of cases in other similar countries in Europe were only when it got the European Court Of Human Rights was the injustice corrected) and once the Press' (and the higher up's) attention has moved on, but that is a mentally and economically very costly fight for individuals to fight, which is why poor people almost invariably get shafted in such a system when they cross the wrong person or "don't know their place".
why target the youtuber though?
It's the same taking the fight against drug dealers to the drug users. They don't care about the lives they ruin as long as they can punish people.
Seen this going around.
Is anyone familiar with the channel itself? Because based on the article, it sounds like mostly (presumably he) is getting made an example of for reviewing hardware that comes with ROMs on an SD Card? But... a LOT of these "retro consoles" do and outlets just ignore it in favor of their totally legit collection that they don't talk about.
Did OWN actually show what is on the SD Card and emphasize that these units came with it?
He uploaded an English dubbed explanation: youtube/zSEB4if2pJQ#.
He seems super unsavvy when it comes to legal/formal proceedings or authority in general (I don't mean that as a bad thing, we are all different, just that it can def affect how things go and escalate).
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For one he got the notice in mid April & just continued to review (among other things?) such consoles this whole time (which makes me think now a trial is even more likely) & didn't prepare for anything (his channels, personal things, SD cards with all them ROMs, etc).
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The panic & the whole 'why is this happening to me' anger makes more sense in view of this (not that is isn't warranted, from what I've seen it's def stupid anyone is doing anything about this guy in general).
But other shit-showy things happened too - they took his phone to make a copy & didn't return it for two months (it's unclear if they had a warrant for it or if he volunteered it - or indeed if Italian law recognises what a "personal device" is as EU has yet to compile a delegated act that will unify definitions & personal rights for such modern necessities for all members).
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(If a cop takes my phone & doesn't promptly return it still locked I'm marring their mom & make them call me daddy before the trial starts. Then submit my phone in evidence with saucy newlywed pics. I would be angy too if they took my phone, not to mention some poor data retrieval specialist getting a lifetime dose of ptsd.)
An Italian youtuber with some legal experience explains a bit more (in Italian): youtube./zSEB4if2pJQ#.
What I was thinking is that the complaint had to be specific, ie some lawyer (for a Japanese megacorp?) found an exact thing to complain about (eg in this exact second of this specific vid he admits this personal gain and shows that illegal thing, etc). Not just something vague.
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They are looking at all his communication, finances, and content on his channels (but might be focusing only on one YT channel - this and the fact they mention an Anbernic device makes me think it's a very specific complaint).
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I don't know that much about Italian law enforcement but I agree that is a bit sus they went after him at all - there might be more to the story that he either isn't saying or thinks (in your average "law ignorance" way) irrelevant but is very relevant. Idk.
Thank you for the additional context and links!
I'm surprised they've gotten away with shipping preloaded SD cards for so long. That was a risk waiting to blow up in someone's face, though it obviously isn't fair to be going after some guy rather than the distributors.
To be fair, they (anbernic at least) sidestep the obvious minefields. No Mario, Pokemon, etc. A bunch of really sketchy and somewhat janky MAME ROMs, and a bunch of NES and others, on my 35xxV and 406h.
Remember when Retro Game Corps almost had his youtube channel shut down by Nintendo for showing Nintendo footage on these handhelds?
Yeah.....he's probably thinking to himself "Welp. Time to retire."
When I’m dictator, any country that does something like this will be carpet bombed.
I will vote for you!
But Gamergate said that Fascist conservatives would be our friends? What? Did the Russian disinfo targets get manipulated again?
so what was the best handheld
It all depends really, Steam Deck is the best all rounder but for specific niches (tiny and portable, retro form factor) there are better ones 😀
retroid pocket 5 is pretty sweet. I just wish it had handles for by big hands.
According to the video, officials are not required to disclose what exactly the charges are or who has brought them until the initial investigation is complete under Italian law. At that point, the case is either dismissed or goes to trial. The complaint specifically mentions reproduction of copyrighted material from Nintendo and Sony, but the case may originate from the agency itself.
So for now we don't actually know the charges or if the trial will procede, but yeah definitely not fair.
Yeah, he only showed what the police gave him (they are investigating him for promoting copyright infringement).
He could say that he is doing AI research and AI training and reviews are just part of his scientific documentation.
Aah, the Guardia di Finanza, the one police organ all italians actually respect and fear ( or so I hear ).
The charges don't make sense though. Maybe by reviewing "pirate" material he was indirectly bypassing paying the italian state its due and thus they jumped him?
YouTuber Faces Possible Jail Time for Reviewing Gaming Handhelds
I'm so tired of these titles "Person arrested for perfectly legal thing". He wasn't arrested for reviewing gaming handhelds, he was arrested for copyright infringement.
The most pedantic comment I've read all week. Title is fine
Exactly. Copyright infringement? He was reviewing handheld that came with ROMs which is the copyright infringement apparently?
I agree the title is fine because the whole reason why he was arrested because he was reviewing the handheld that had the games on them. That is making an argument out of nothing
It's not pedantic. The title not only intentionally misrepresents the situation but it explains absolutely nothing. Reviewing hardware on YouTube is not a crime in any country to my knowledge, so how could he be arrested for it?
He couldn't have been arrested for copyright infringement; that offense was perpetrated by the entity that sold the thing to him, not himself.
That is literally the charge/what they are investigating.
Afaik the difference will come down to if he was ever paid for a review (which would be the difference between a regular consumer buying a thing legally & showing what he bought vs him being part of the promo campaigns by the manufacturer ... you know, like Google is).
And if there is no newer specific law (the old one ofc doesn't explain shit since it's from pre-computer era), it might come down to him receiving free consoles to review, and maybe having a bunch of SD cards full of ROMs in his apartment.
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(Meaning that if they say free review merch is a form of payment, they go to trial. As I understand he didn't/it's not common practice to return stuff like this after review, tho some reviewers do it and some manufacturers demand it.)
He can be arrested for anything. If you want to argue that it wasn't copyright infringement, you'll have to take it up with the author. That's what they said.
That's insane. I know many of these handhelds come with pirated roms but taking it out on a youtube reviewer is outrageous. Why don't they just ban them from being shipped to italy?
Easier to stomp on one individual than to crack down on the businesses importing this stuff. They're probably also collecting some kind of import duty on them too.
My guess is it's because reviewing is advertisement, as he's making money off the review if he monetized the video.