Police raid YouTuber's home for reviewing retro gaming consoles

A YouTuber who focuses on retro gaming has had his home raided by the authorities, who seized a variety of gaming handheld devices.

That YouTuber is Once Were Nerd, who says Italian customs enforcement officers from the Guardia di Finanza appeared at his home on April 15 with a search warrant to investigate his property for devices that were promoting pirated copyrighted material. The authorities left the home with a total of 30 gaming consoles.

In addition to the confiscated consoles, the YouTuber provided their conversations with the console makers, along with their smartphone, which the authorities said would be returned in a few days, but was returned two months later on June 15.

Moreover, the authorities retained the right to shut down the YouTube channel even before the investigation was concluded. Why has this happened? Once Were Nerd was creating YouTube videos featuring consoles, many of which utilized emulation to run copyrighted games. For example, authorities claim that his reviews of ANBERNIC devices such as the RG Slide contain promotion of copyrighted ROMs, or pirated game files, that the console maker has placed onto a microSD card and shipped with the console.

Under Article 171 of the Italian Copyright Law, which prohibits the promotion of copyrighted material, written in 1941, a violation of the law can come with a punishment of €15,000 and three years of jail time.

As for Once Were Nerd, the YouTuber was aware of the gray area when it comes to sharing emulated games publicly, and took precautions such as not taking sponsorships for the videos that may be in violation of copyright laws. Additionally, the YouTuber took additional precautions by not including any affiliate links in the videos as well.

The complaint against Once Were Nerd specifically mentions the reproduction of Nintendo and Sony copyright material, but the case could be coming from the regulatory agency itself, and not directly pushed by the two gaming companies, both of which are notorious for going the distance when it comes to protecting IP.

For example, Nintendo is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against Palworld creator PocketPair for patent infringement, with the Mario Maker claiming the company has infringed on its IP (Pokémon) based on the resemblance of certain mechanics in Palworld. Nintendo is seeking damages equivalent to $66,000 for the infringement of three patents: two about how monsters are captured and one for switching between riding different creatures.

The investigation is still ongoing, but as previously mentioned, the Italian authorities have retained the right to remove Once Were Nerd's social media accounts, including his YouTube, at any given point.