Platitude said:
io9 has an article about it here: http://io9.com/is-disney-really-releasing-the-unaltered-star-wars-tril-1622812966
They're skeptical of this, and I agree. The distribution rights issues make it a real complicated situation.
Well, I honestly don't think it does. Fox has no more control over Star Wars now than they did when Lucas owned it. Fox just gets a distribution cut and Lucasfilm gets the rest, so it's really not a big deal to my knowledge. Also, Fox has no reason to refuse to allow Disney to release an unaltered set since they have nothing to gain from letting them do this and would just be passing up on money. If Disney just HAD to get the distribution rights then Fox will likely be willing to deal since they don't have them for long anyways (2020 is a red herring because Fox owns perpetual distribution for SW so a deal has to be made anyway). If Fox is unwilling to deal then Disney could just refuse to let them sell any Star Wars films, making Fox have no choice but to sell. As for anything Devin Faraci said, which is cited heavily in that article, I don't believe really because he thinks that Fox OWNS the movie as in they literally own the movies, not just the distribution rights, which I know for a fact is not true. George Lucas has absolutely no control over Star Wars anymore. They may listen to him to be polite but he is not making business decisions anymore. Fox owning distribution rights means that any Star Wars release has to be through them, but they can't release stuff if Disney does not want them to since Lucasfilm owns the material. Correct me if I'm wrong, again I'm no expert, but I think that covers most of the distribution rights issue.