[Joe Forster/STA]

But seriously, here's a very good example of why the goddamn publishers (not developers!) should be obliged to release a final patch that removes if not all but, at least, the intrusive commercial copy protection at the "end of product life": within X years of gold release; when official support ends; when the publisher goes bankrupt and/or bought by another company; when the original copyright holder dissolves; whatever.

Also see our recommendation in the PC Games forum FAQ to prefer games distributed on physical media rather than "digital downloads" for similar reasons: as soon as the central authentication server is down, you won't be able to play anymore. (And, yes, I did play Wolfenstein-3D for DOS, from 1992, two years ago during the Christmas holiday, with a full map replacement addon. So what?)

JoWood is known to use custom copy protections - and difficult-to-crack ones at that - as well as nasty triggers which suggests that they're even worse than the average publisher when it comes to choosing between more money (preferred) and smoother user experience (not preferred). In similar style: fuck them!