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Notes -
I didn't have in mind any kind of service exploits when I said "hacking the client." Of course companies can ban you from their services, for essentially any reason.
I only had in mind white-hat "preserving a retired product," but I think its kind of silly to think the community or the market is entitled to that. Of course, the relevant punishment here is getting sued, not getting banned.
I know, but it was sort of implied when you referenced MMO’s at the bottom of the comment. The problem with a lot of video games today is that they often depend heavily on a backend infrastructure or continued service updates to the product in a way that video games pre-millennium didn’t have to. EOL’s on the other hand are more of a case where a large company is “hoarding” a dead IP but still wants to prevent interested parties from keeping it alive or taking it in a different direction. If it wanted to collect fees and license it to private “player communities” or indie developers, I don’t think it would be as hotly debated, but the company shouldn’t be obligated to provide the tools or infrastructure to keep it active.
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