Harmy has had permission from the studios to do this since day one.
Why sure! I verified this before downloading and Harmy told me that he met George Lucas and some Fox executives in a desert (and Jim Morrison was there too) and they told him to make the Despecialized Editions. Especially George was very happy since he wanted to release the originals himself but had unfortunately lost the negatives!
Such a shame indeed about the TN1 disbanding. I’ve watched that Tech sample 20 times and it still amazes me!