Great article, but I've found a bug in it:

In 1997, they were still so popular that they collectively grossed over $200 million in an altered re-release. That year, however, George Lucas had this to say about the altered "Special Edition", quoted in American Cinematographer in February:

"There will only be one. And it won't be what I would call the 'rough cut', it'll be the 'final cut.' The other one will be some sort of interesting artifact that people will look at and say, 'There was an earlier draft of this.'... The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won't last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition]...I think it's the director's prerogative, not the studio's, to go back and reinvent a movie."

I think he didn't say that in 1997 but in 2004. Note that he's talking about the DVD version, why would he say that in 1997?