Nintendo has struck down its copyright hammer once more, this time bringing it down on Bitmap Books, whose recent Kickstarter campaign for a proposed NES Visual Compendium artbook was shut down by the Japanese gaming giant and its team of legal experts.

Since it was first proposed, Bitmap Books' planned NES Visual Compendium artbook, which was set to showcase the artwork of classic Nintendo NES and Famicom games, was met with overwhelming support from avid fans. Indeed, over the course of its Kickstarter campaign, the project has raised more than $100,000, far beyond Bitmap's initial goal of $36,733.

As much as the project is a labor of love from fans of Nintendo's most notable IPs, however, the Japanese gaming giant has taken offense at the fact that the planned artbook includes images of copyrighted IPs, such as The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.

Apart from this, Bitmap's utilization of a modified seal of approval, which looks uncannily similar to Nintendo's iconic seal from decades ago, was specifically targeted by the gaming giant's legal team.

"This Kickstarter project makes unauthorized use of Nintendo's copyrights as noted above. The description of the book states that it is 'mainly visual,' and the campaign shows pages of the book which consist simply of large screenshots copied directly from Nintendo's video games," Nintendo's statement on the artbook's Kickstarter page read.

"This campaign also makes use of a mark that is confusingly similar to registered trademarks owned by Nintendo. This use of Nintendo's intellectual property may confuse Kickstarter backers into thinking this project is sponsored or licensed by Nintendo, when in fact it is not," the statement added.

With the project fully funded, however, supporters of Bitmap Books' NES Visual Compendium are hoping that Nintendo and the creators of the planned artbook would reach a compromise. Bitmap Books has not released an official statement on the status of the project as of writing.

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