Italian YouTuber under investigation over reviews of Anbernic Consoles

But several days ago some 🐔 members told me that emulation is legal as hell!
Emulation is legal as hell.

The youtuber isn't in trouble because he used emulation, he is in trouble because he used pirated roms.

Though he shouldn't be in trouble for that either since he bought a device that's sold legally (i assume) so any legality issues should be with the device makers or the platform that sells them.
 
Even if Anbernic did load ROMs onto review units, that they have no presence in Europe aside, it is upon the reviewer (and customers) to ensure that they legally can have those ROMs.

That means owning a licence for each and every ROM.

Considering that these devices can come with thousands of ROMs, it's safest to wipe them all and then install only the ones you are entitled to use, ideally ripped by yourself.
 
Think what you like, do you honestly believe he bought that device .... with roms .... and he thought that its legal?

It isn't his fault that the devices contained pirated games on the included microSD. He may not have gone through the due diligence of saying "I will not provide links to games or BIOSes" and he caught the ire of the police once he got too high of a profile.

Even if Anbernic did load ROMs onto review units, that they have no presence in Europe aside, it is upon the reviewer (and customers) to ensure that they legally can have those ROMs.

That means owning a licence for each and every ROM.

Considering that these devices can come with thousands of ROMs, it's safest to wipe them all and then install only the ones you are entitled to use, ideally ripped by yourself.

Nobody who buys these devices will do that. These devices are anywhere from $40-80 (with some niche devices in the $150-200 range). Dumping hardware is a niche within a niche and better suited to preservation efforts than the average consumer.

Beyond that, the retro market is insanely overpriced right now, and even if you can afford everything, there's no guarantee it will forever be in working condition.

Persecuting people and not providing future-proofed access to these games through the existing market doesn't help fight piracy. It only reinforces it.

Moral/legal hangups aside, I think it's better for gaming history to live on through these devices than not. I do not want a corporation to tell me what parts of gaming history I can and cannot consume.
 
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Is emulation not legal in Italy? Because as far as I know it's legal here in the US but your supposed to be sourcing your own roms from your own games.

From the retro YouTubers that I watch here in the US what they do is that they only show Emulation for games that they actually own, they try to avoid showing Nintendo first party games as much as possible, and they don't blatantly show the plethora of games that might ship with the device but do call out it as a bad thing whenever it happens.

So was he blatantly promoting/showing the games that came with the device or what?
what youtubers do you watch mine do not call it a bad thing but they do avoid Nintendo though.
 
this is why even in the us i stay away from that shit fun to watch on youtube but i do want the fbi coming in to put me in bars for owning one.
 
It isn't his fault that the devices contained pirated games on the included microSD. He may not have gone through the due diligence of saying "I will not provide links to games or BIOSes" and he caught the ire of the police once he got too high of a profile.



Nobody who buys these devices will do that. These devices are anywhere from $40-80 (with some niche devices in the $150-200 range). Dumping hardware is a niche within a niche and better suited to preservation efforts than the average consumer.

Beyond that, the retro market is insanely overpriced right now, and even if you can afford everything, there's no guarantee it will forever be in working condition.

Persecuting people and not providing future-proofed access to these games through the existing market doesn't help fight piracy. It only reinforces it.

Moral/legal hangups aside, I think it's better for gaming history to live on through these devices than not. I do not want a corporation to tell me what parts of gaming history I can and cannot consume.

It's quite simple. Very few people are going to have licences for all the ROMs these consoles can ship with.

So the only safe option is to delete all the ROMs. Especially if you are going to broadcast it for the world to see.
 
It isn't his fault that the devices contained pirated games on the included microSD. He may not have gone through the due diligence of saying "I will not provide links to games or BIOSes" and he caught the ire of the police once he got too high of a profile.
So he accidentally uploaded the video? Did someone force him to make the video? No, he willingly uploaded a video containing evidence that he bought a device with pirated games and no doubt was saying how good it is. Just delete the roms, make it clear that the games being played are backups of games he owns and problem solved.
 
It's weird.

If something whoever sells consoles bundled with pirated games should be the one chased, not a small youtuber reviewing them with 45K subs.

Unless in addition to review them, he also provided links to download roms of legally protected games.

Receiving stolen goods is still a crime in Western countries...

Putting up a vid with pirated ROMs in use is a clear illegality.

But probably they just confiscate the hardware and it's his financial loss. It's the same they'd do if he bought a stolen phone or something.
 
That's why I'll just stick with retroid instead of anbernic.

Either way, he hasn't been formally charged. It will likely be a small fine and the questionable property siezed. To pursue significant charges against this would be a pr nightmare

Though, this is Europe we are talking about sooooooo
 
Either way, he hasn't been formally charged. It will likely be a small fine and the questionable property siezed. To pursue significant charges against this would be a pr nightmare
You never know with the italian judicial system, once you are in it's a fucking nightmare. Most likely it was a third party that pressed charge, not sure if a state prosecutor has time to go out of his way to deal with this stuff... Even though a lot of times they do that.

It's also true that in the majority of cases (>60%) the charges don't end up under the scrutiny of the court, they are either archived or bargained for (patteggiamento). The funny thing is that in Italy bargaining does not involve admitting to have performed a crime, it only entails the acceptance of the conditions you bargained for. Even the lawmakers know that the system is so fucked up that they need something like that to try to filter most things out.

EDIT: Also every EU member has its own vastly different judicial system.
 
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If I were to bet on who denounced him, my money would be on some person he knows who learned that he makes money reviewing emulation devices on YT. This person probably got envious and denounced the YouTuber on the basis that he may have done something illegal. It certainly wouldn't be the first time in Italy.
Im thinking the same, someone might did something to spark this whole problem might just because they are crossing road with him : /
 
Well it looks like this guy is not innocent like he pretended. He distributed links in his videos for roms and bios sites and he sold his devices preloaded with roms.


Read the comments - it's not as black and white as the (clickbait ) article would have you believe...
 
Even if Anbernic did load ROMs onto review units, that they have no presence in Europe aside, it is upon the reviewer (and customers) to ensure that they legally can have those ROMs.
Dude they load them on retail devices!

I bought my wife an Anbernic device from a reputable store, and we were shocked at the amount of ROMs that were loaded up there.
 
Legality varies by territory. Something is not going to be legal in Italy just because it is legal in Hong Kong or Shenzhen. Just because something is on Temu it doesn't mean you can legally import it.
 
Dude they load them on retail devices!

I bought my wife an Anbernic device from a reputable store, and we were shocked at the amount of ROMs that were loaded up there.

Then wipe them if you're going to be shooting a video about them!*

Seriously, where has common sense and personal responsibility gone these days?!

*You should probably wipe them anyway, morally. Legally though, the chances of you getting caught if you aren't showing the entire world are pretty much zero.
 
Then wipe them if you're going to be shooting a video about them!*

Seriously, where has common sense and personal responsibility gone these days?!

*You should probably wipe them anyway, morally. Legally though, the chances of you getting caught if you aren't showing the entire world are pretty much zero.
Lol I was expecting I'd have to dig around and find ROMs for her to play (she wanted to play some super old pokemon games and relive some nostalgia), turns out they were all there lmfao.

I bought that device out of a brick and mortar store too, it's not some AliExpress or EBay vendor did this for me lmao.
 
Well it looks like this guy is not innocent like he pretended. He distributed links in his videos for roms and bios sites and he sold his devices preloaded with roms.

No Way What GIF by VTM.be
 
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