DuracellEnergizer said:

^Those stories could still be told, albeit as out-of-continuity stories.

Of course, I'm all in favour of tossing the PT right out, negative reactions be damned.

Methinks they'll say the PT is canon just to avoid pissing anyone off, but future Disney movies won't be beholden to anything that happened in the prequels, like I can guarantee that we'll never hear the words midichlorian or gun gun again (praise God). The majority of people going to see Ep. VII probably don't even remember much of what happened in the PT anyway; seriously, from my experience no one I've met in the real world has any recollection of the PT, they just say, "oh, they weren't as good as the originals," or, "the acting sucked." It's only in places like TFN that you see PT fanboys.