If the developers released a patch to remove the online activation when they no longer support the game and want to take down the activation servers, then I would have absolutely no problem with it.
But really, the only kind of pirating that any copy protection stops, online activated or otherwise, is casual copying by friends.
To alleviate the confusion caused by my earlier statement: I was not in any way claiming that "software developers (as opposed to publishers) are all about the community and care more about the customer than the bottom line". I was simply stating that I think software developers are more aware of the fact that copy protection does nothing to stop piracy, whereas software publishers are more out of touch with their industry. Therefore a software developer would be more likely to skip copy protection (or use a simple serial#) because they are quite aware that it just hurts paying customers and not the criminals they are targeting.
I have not yet had to activate an old game that I wanted to play again and found that it's activation server is no longer available. But when I do, I am going to be *pissed*!