Multiplayer is another story, and to obtain a stable and independent evironment for this could be an utopia.
It is good that thanks to GOG and Steam some old games got again servers to play on, but the decisions regarding comunication protocols are up to the ones that actually manages those servers...
Instead, the need of a server to activate a product for local play sessions is totally wrong.
As another note, GOG just gifted me one of my wishlisted games, and while indeed I am grateful for this unexpected thing, I found the message pretty funny in this situation:
We'd like to thank you for being a part of GOG.COM, a community of gamers who value DRM-free ideas and preserving our gaming heritage.