One thing his linked article misses is the fact that if these things entered the public domain, a lot of games that are currently tied in ownership hell would be free for GoG to remaster/rework to work on modern computers, and sell.
And recall, a LOT of these games are only now available, even to the original owners, because of GoG. The original owners just sat on the IP, because the profits weren't enough to justify porting them to a modern OS.
They can easily have an INSANE game store that comes with all windows 8 machines. They also have an advantage in porting old windows games to newer operating systems. Without development costs for game design, they just have to port, and will be able to profit massively. They can easily make it difficult to get a game working that is not from the Microsoft Classic Game Store.
But, at the same time, this would still be GREAT for consumers, because games would be cheap. They could just have a set of old Mario games or Final Fantasy games even for FREE if you create a store account and add your credit card information.
Companies with consoles or distribution (like Amazon) would have a great advantage. Amazon could even provide every game for free if you sign up for Amazon Prime.
I cannot wait for Mario on Xbox. haha. That's going to be weird but seriously awesome.
And recall, a LOT of these games are only now available, even to the original owners, because of GoG. The original owners just sat on the IP, because the profits weren't enough to justify porting them to a modern OS.