doubleofive wrote: Then why stagger the releases?
There are tons of distribution issues which we can only guess at, each country having their own criteria. In the US (are the states the only one who get first day Clone Wars showings?) I think the premiere of Season 4 is the same day as the blu-s. But I can't remember what day that is.
For digitalfreaknyc and the discussion of the death of the creator of a work of copyright:
http://blog.cgpgrey.com/copyright-forever-less-one-day/
But, imagine for a moment, if copyright still worked as first intended.
*Spoiler*
In 2011 the whole of the original Star Wars trilogy – all of its artwork, its characters, its music – would have left copyright protection and been available to aspiring directors and writers to build upon and make their own versions of.
There would be a treasure trove of new Star Wars stories for fans to enjoy.
But as long as the current copyright laws remain as they are, no living person will ever get to tell a Darth Vader story, or a Harry Potter Story, or a Hobbit Story or any other story that matters to them, that the author or, when after their death, their company, disagrees with.
*edit*
If this was the case, think of how different this place would be. We'd be debating which public scanning crew had the best print but maybe not the greatest scanning facility, should they be scanning the IBA print or the 70mm print, or the recently unearthed print which never got screened. We'd be learning about the real world audio visual aspects of converting these films instead of relying on third hand opinions tainted by creator exhuberance. We'd actually be able to compare and contrast original and SE prints, instead of abstract suppositions, and crappy bootlegs and recreations tainted by technological and memory lapses. Another side would be pointing out how LFL needs some support or the deleted material would never see the light. The fan edit crews would be lobbying for position from the public scanning crews. Maybe even LFL would be contacting fan editors to give them advanced blu-ray copies so their versions would come out shortly after the official release. Fan Film makers would be stepping up pointing out "hey we can offer you new stories!"