They're going to lose a lawsuit over something like this in the near future. I'm not sure what law they're breaking, but going out of your way to cripple products to increase your chance of sales has got to be illegal somehow...
Companies have a broad ability to cripple their products in pretty much whatever way they see fit. Consumers have a discouragingly persistent willingness to put up with restrictions that are not in their best interest. People will whine about this, but then most of them will go out and buy the games anyway.