Like someone else mentioned a few posts up I too am morbidly fascinated with this thread.
For me the quintessential D&D experience was that feeling of a shared community, one that no longer exists IMO & can no longer be recaptured. Let me explain what I mean, I'm talking about the OD&D, 1e & the first bit of 2e, before the TSR glut. It was a truly shared world experience we all played the same modules (I know this is a broad generalization, but one I think basically holds true) A1-4, GDQ series, B1-9, T1-4. It was a time when if at the con, or game store and you talked about the Green Face, Eclavdra, Marissa the slave lord, Caves of Chaos, or others. You instantly knew what was being talked about b/c you had traversed those same dungeons. As the game grew in popularity and the wealth of modules & game settings exploded that sense of community passed from the hobby. It was replaced by a new form of shared experience where we all played D&D (whatever your flavor) but it no longer had that closeness of a small town community it once had. I saw a flicker of it at the beginnings of 3e with the adventure path, but the rapid expansion & diversity (thanks to the OGL) of the other modules quickly squashed that, and I can also see that in 4e with what they are trying to do with the Encounter nights. Unfortunately the community is to large and fractured to ever really regain that feeling again.
Someone else further up broke down the compatibility of the various editions and I think I agree with that, basic thru AD&D and to a smaller extent 3e are D&D to me (your experience may vary and i'm perfectly happy to accept that, just respect my own opinion as I do yours) b/c of the ease of compatibility. 4e while I played it up until the paragon level and had a DI subscription and spent hundreds of $ on it, it just isn't the same thing to me b/c while the names are the same in a lot of cases the rules just don't work the same, and it's much harder to mix stuff together.
I didn't get on board with Pathfinder, I gravitated toward FantasyCraft, and more recently flirting with a return to 1e/2e as my gaming engine of choice these days. I would love to see some of these wide cracks in our hobby mend themselves or at least shorten the gap b/c there is entirely to much friction as to which edition is the true version of D&D, when they are just D&D no matter which one you play. The only distinction that matters is the one that affects you and your group, and it shouldn't be foisted off on everyone else.
Those are my thoughts anyways.
As an afterthought I do think bringing back the pdf of older editions would be a great idea as well b/c of the revenue stream that it might generate. It might not be a lot but it's still money flowing into your coffers from people who would not be buying your current products. I don't understand how that would be a bad thing. I've got most of everything for D&D either in hard copy or pdf, but I'm sure there are others that might like to replace or re-own their old books. You might even get a bunch of older lapsed gamers who have no interest in the current game coming back and rebuying entire lines of stuff. Wouldn't you rather have that money or do you prefer them to pirate the stuff? I can't see it as competing with your current edition b/c those folks weren't going to buy it in the first place, and it's not like anyone is asking them to support the older editions (well some are but we all know that's not going to happen), just make the older stuff accessible and we'll pony up the money for it. As Mark said further up it polishes up your public image as well b/c the piracy argument doesn't hold water to anyone who is in the slightest bit up on current tech news. So if you aren't going to do it give us another reason even if it's we don't want to at least we'll know you are up front and honest about it, not hiding behind a weak reason.
