I don't know MikeO, I have Lucas saying it would cost millions, and you saying it wouldn't. How would we know how much it would cost to restore one of Lucas's well worn prints? Maybe they are so far gone that it would take the kind of power he used on the 2004 SE cleanup process. That did cost millions of dollars.

And he's not insulting the fans, he says flat out that they think outside of the box and are very creative. He seems to respect that.

I think if the original creators of the Flash Gordon serials were around to say "I really wish I could have done this on color" then I think Lucas would be all for it. To him it's about artist's rights.

He spoke out about colorizing the 3 stooges at one point, but in that case it was someone other than the original creators altering it.

As far as the other people who worked on it for Lucas, Lucas paid them for those contributions.

It's all on the up and up.