Is the despecialised edition fair use?
Not strictly… Lucasfilm (and all related companies) doubtlessly knows about it and has not taken any measures against it, they’ve been pretty lenient toward many kinds of fan productions, but no it is not exactly legal, though it isn’t competing directly with anything they’re actually selling (which is the whole reason this exists, because they WON’T sell the theatrical versions) and we take a very firm stance that anyone who gets the Despecialized Editions should own the commercially available sources used here (the Star Wars Blu-rays) so as to further distance ourselves from lost sales on Lucasfilm’s part. But in the end, justify it as we will, there is no safe provision this is operating under, just Lucasfilm probably not wanting to piss off their fanbase any more than they already have.