Italian Authorities Investigate Retro Reviewer for ‘Advertising’ Anbernic Handheld Game Consoles; Faces Up to Three Years in Jail for Copyright Violations

Was scrolling through YouTube the other day, right? And I stumbled onto Francesco Salicini’s drama. His channel’s called Once Were Nerd. Apparently, the Italian cops have him in their sights for promoting some dodgy stuff, or that’s what they’re saying. Anyway, Salicini’s thing is reviewing Anbernic consoles — those quirky little handhelds that let you play old-school Nintendo and Sony games. Now, these gadgets sometimes come with SD cards jam-packed with who-knows-how-many ROMs. Like, that’s definitely not gonna fly legally. Francesco says he’s just talking about the hardware though. No sponsor handouts, nada. Not even a sneaky affiliate link. Kinda hard to believe, right?

So, here’s where it gets juicy. They’ve slapped him with Article 171 ter. I don’t know Italian law, but it sounds as harsh as spaghetti cooked to paste. €15,000 fine and maybe three years behind bars? Yikes. And get this, they’ve already grabbed over 30 of his consoles and his phone. Probably combing through every little message looking for a smoking gun or something.

Anyway, the whole thing drags on for like six months. During this time, the authorities will ponder whether to toss it or push on with a trial. Meanwhile, Salicini might lose his channel just like that, no concrete proof needed. It’s totally precarious.

Nintendo’s notorious for its iron grip on its stuff. They’ve nuked countless emulators and repos on GitHub. Could they be the ones pointing fingers at Salicini? Who knows. If it’s them or maybe Sony, they’re stepping up their game big time.

Honestly, there’s this whole mess around emulators. Studios want full control over their games — even the ones from the disco era of gaming. But as old consoles kick the bucket and new-gen systems don’t run ancient software that well, emulators are like the last line of defense for keeping gaming history alive. I mean, those classics could just melt into oblivion if not.

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