(Image: credit to NintendoWire/Comfort Food Video Games)

The stories of Nintendo's DMCA claims are no stranger to the gaming news circles. From striking down fan-made games, artwork, even gameplay clips from YouTube, the Big N brand's reputation for removing content involving their intellectual properties is notorious among the communities. Even going after Super Smash Bros. tournament events multiple times.

This latest claim can certainly be considered unorthodox. According to Kotaku, Nintendo has gone after image scans from a Japanese exclusive strategy book, the Super Mario 64 Super Guide, from the website Comfort Food Video Games, an archival page. After Nintendo contacted the site to issue a takedown notice, Comfort Food Video Games sent this statement to Kotaku:

"Sadly archive.org sent me their usual takedown notice email telling me Nintendo of America challenged the copyright of the scan and it was removed. Frankly I’d love to challenge the legitimacy of that and how Nintendo of America would have anything to do with a Nintendo of Japan licensed Gem Books guide from 1995 but I can’t really fight the Nintendo legal team here. It’s incredibly disappointing.

While I fully understand protecting one’s IP and copyrights I didn’t think I was hurting anyone by scanning and uploading a 27 year old guide that is extremely out of print. Truthfully I think it helps Nintendo while only hurting the people selling this guide for literal hundreds of dollars. All I wanted to do was spread my love of this incredible guide and to a larger extent my love for the company.

I’m a rookie to the video game preservation scene but I can’t think of anything more depressing than how it’s a bunch of hard working people spending their free time and money painstakingly archiving and preserving history while major corporations like Nintendo are doing nothing to help. In fact they’re actively hindering the cause."

Game preservation through piracy and emulation among gamers has become a contentious battle. If it's now reached a point where going after imagery from a 26 year old tome, which is incredibly rare and goes for hundreds of dollars for anyone willing to hunt it down, the fight for IP protection has teetered into just ridiculous.

SOURCES: Kotaku