The consensus is that the phone home feature is more trouble than it's worth, in addition that users should have been notified directly about the deprecation of the software.  It comes down to the fact that the user has no ownership, and is not entitled to continue using it long after the author decides to discontinue development and support. This is not a fair deal to the consumer.  Of course, there is the fear of piracy, but to what end when you can't continue to use the software beyond its end of support?  Bondware has placed itself in the same situation, shut down the servers and Poser becomes dead in the water.

Ken1171_Designs once mentioned that if his programs did not guarantee a steady income or interest, he would just move on to other projects.  His programs have phone home features built in and are rather pricey.  Under those circumstances, I would be very hesitant to invest that kind of money into products that I could be potentially locked out.