Taking a Dip online has real sanction?

So I was nosing around the Avalon Hill site tonight, given the recent news, and I found this: the complete rules to Diplomacy as a PDF, from the publisher. This is pretty interesting to me, because I remember back when I was investigating the online Diplomacy scene, when physical copies of the game were a little harder to come by than they are now. Anyone who had an online Dip client or server was quick to tell you they couldn’t actually give you the rules to the game, because they were under copyright. Now the copyright holder is giving them away. I suppose because Hasbro Interactive’s online version tanked? (Just speculation on my part.)