Well, that's probably a movie that'll never enter public domain since there's so much money to be made off of it. I also don't understand the distribution rights issue. That Badass Digest article that claimed Fox outright owned the whole Original Trilogy said it was a fake rumor because Fox would be the one to release it, which makes no sense. When it was announced that the whole Saga was coming to blu ray in 2011 (or whenever) no one said, "George Lucas actually can't release those, Fox has the distribution rights," it's just nonsensical. I still am betting $100 on the fact that we'll get the OOT in some form (even if it's a GOUT repeat, which I doubt it will be) by the end of 2015

EDIT: I should add that I do understand that Fox has a role to play here. Either Disney buys the distribution rights, or they just let Fox distribute whatever Lucasfilm puts together. Or make a new agreement altogether, but by no means is this something that'll prevent Star Wars from ever being released again.