John
Nintendo has confirmed that there are stolen Nintendo Switch consoles in the wild. Shouldn’t the YouTubers who bought the stolen hardware face consequences?
Images and videos have been cropping up all week, showing people unboxing Nintendo Switch systems and showing off menus. FloKO on YouTube posted a full unboxing of the system, whilst Dystify put up a video (originally posted by hiphoptherobot) showcasing the UI.
While it is great news that the individuals who stole the Nintendo Switch consoles have been identified and are now facing the repercussions for their actions, I can’t help but feel that justice has only been half served.
Shouldn’t the YouTubers who purchased the stolen hardware also face consequences? These YouTubershave obtained stolen goods and have used them to generate views, and therefore money, from the theft.
When art masterpieces worth €15m were stolen from a gallery in Italy, ArtCollector991 couldn’t jump on the internet to show off the new painting he purchased from a man in a balaclava in a car park. It’s an extreme example, ridiculous even, but the point remains: stolen goods in any other industry are rarely shown off without repercussions for those who paid the thieves for those items.
At the very least, the videos should be pulled by Nintendo and the profits from YouTube ads should be confiscated.
Where do you stand on this issue? Should stolen gaming goods be a free license to generate traffic, or should those who stoop to that level be blocked from profiting?
