I agree that the "shutdown" stunt was poorly executed, but it did have the effect they intended.

Here is a quote from discussions on slashdot at the time:

> Plus, they must suck at advertising. This is the first I heard of them.

https://www.slashdot.org/story/141308

Also, as people pointed out at the time - with GOG at least you don't need their servers to be online to reinstall from your backups.