Today, finally, WotC has finally seen fit to digitally rerelease the 1979 edition of the DMG. They released the 1e monster manual one week ago, and the 1e PHB two weeks ago.
So at long last, people who still prefer to play 1e but hate physical books (or can't find copies to scan) can legally play.
I'm going to guess that this rerelease mans WotC is not planning on reprinting the 1e core rules in the immediate future. Or, if they are, then they don't expect to sell them in the brick-and-mortar game stores, in keeping with the pro-local-store strategy they follow for Magic: The Gathering.
