Activision has been given far too much credit for their disingenuous reasons for nixing what may seem like two small features. It's not solely dedicated servers, but also mod support. DLC in the PC is far different from how it exists in consoles due to XBL and PSN's closed, proprietary nature. Those who play online on consoles have been exposed to this environment for years and have accepted and adjusted. Such a scenario isn't the case for multiplayer on the PC though, and Activision wishes to change that. Their attack is three-pronged:

1) By disabling dedicated servers, servers solely meant for those with pirated copies are effectively eliminated, unless there's serious reverse engineering like how private World of Warcraft come about. No online multiplayer for pirated copies, which arguably is the biggest appeal and the strongest point of COD games.

2) Activision knows that by centralizing the multiplayer through matchmaking, they maintain the power to pull the plug on it's multiplayer when it becomes financially feasible to only have servers running for the newest games and force stalwart MW2 players to purchase the latest game.

3) By eliminating mod support, that practically eliminates the prospect of any community made DLC and thus leave MW2's longevity and support at the discretion of Activision and whatever amount of content they wish to make at whatever price.

This is Activision consolidating their control and maximizing profits in every conceivable way at the expense of us. The first reason is understandable. After all, even Activision, the faceless conglomerate is a business that has every right to defend their product, but disabling dedicated servers has consequences too: gaming clans/groups no longer can have a communal server, and latency/server capacity is left in the hands of a company who'll have to service potentially millions of other players.

The latter two reasons are aggressive acts against the interest and benefit of its consumers. It may be within their discretion, but that doesn't mean i'll agree with since I benefit nothing from their profiteering, and in fact as a person who primarily plays on a PC, I am disappointed and a little worried of the implications of Activision's monopolization of the online multiplayer experience for MW2, and presumably their other games.

The outcry following the announcements has little to do with fundamentalism on the part of the PC community, but rather their insistence on the control of the content they pay to use. No one's shedding a tear about pirates being locked out of multiplayer. Consumers and businesses have different interests, and unless you have a business or exist in the middle as a stockholder, you gain nothing by letting business roll over you. We'll never see the fruits of Activision's profits, and apparently neither do its developers and employees if the reports of their exploitation is any indicator.