[meheleventyone]

A form of copy-protection basically. I get the desire for the emotive framing though but I think the EOL implications were simply not considered. I also agree with the idea that at EOL that copy-protection should be removed. There are however a vanishingly small number of games that are built this way so I'm not sure regulation is the best way of approaching it.

[Timon3]

But this is an additional and much less effective layer of copy protection compared to the actual copy protection. The game wouldn't be meaningfully easier to pirate without it.

IMO this means it isn't a form of copy protection.

[meheleventyone]

License verification via a server is a pretty common and normal method of copy protection. For example the JetBrains IDE I'm using at work right now does this.

If it didn't work then players would have no issue with the server being taken offline! But that isn't the case so clearly it impacts people.