The whole situation smacks of "1984" to me. I never thought it'd be George out to rewrite history to his preferred version. Clearly, titling this new release as simply "The Star Wars Trilogy" is an attempt on George's part to assert that this new cut is the one and only trilogy, and all that came before was merely work print, test bed, whatever you want to call it. The real hell of it though, is that this surely won't be the last release of the OT that's been tinkered with. When Episode III is over and done, I guarantee George will go back for his final pass on all the films, then release his definitive collection as a single saga, He'll probably title it "The Star Wars Saga" in hopes to replace everything that has come before, prequel and OT alike. Honestly, I couldn't care less. They are his movies, he can do what he likes. What bothers me is his insistance on not releasing the unaltered OT. Whether GL likes it or not, that film in that itteration is a piece of cinema history. A very large and signifigant piece. To pretend it never happened is to do a disservice not only to those who worked so hard to make it, and to those who fell in love with it and drove the marketing empire that made George what he is today, but to the entire world where the original became something more than just a movie, it became an integral part of the social fabric and popular culture. Mess with the saga all you like George, but don't try to erase history, you are a film maker, not Big Brother.

As for the arguement that there were 3 versions of the film at the time of its release. Sure, but how many copies of each, and how wide was the circulation on the 2 that weren't the Final cut? To my mind, those 2 alternate cuts could more easily and convincinly be called "work prints" than the final version, which is the one that went on to win so many awards and become a world wide phenomenon. The alternate cuts are an interesting historical curiousity of the star wars franchise, but the difference between that situation and the current situation is vast.