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Comment by bastien2 | Hacker News Reader

Exactly why piracy is and always has been at the core of historical preservation

This is really interesting to me, can you expand on what you mean with examples?

The only way to watch the Star Wars: Episode IV's theatrical release version is through some dedicated fans and pirates [1]. You can't buy it.

Same goes for series that have been altered to avoid music royalties [2]. Pirated version will remain as released.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmy%27s_Despecialized_Editio... [2] https://www.fastcompany.com/91109690/why-streaming-platforms...

The '90s MTV animated show Daria suffered from a re-release without the original music. All the MTV-era specific music was replaced with stock instrumentals, which frankly takes a lot away from the atmosphere of the show.

Is it not the case that you can buy the theatrical release, but only used, and on VHS? Or was the theatrical release never actually put on tape and sold to the public?

Han shot first. If you want to see it, you'll have to track down a very early VHS release (from 1984?) or from pirates. Every other official release has been revised for Lucas's change of heart.

The laserdisc version is significantly higher quality than VHS, but it could be hard to find. Not to mention a laserdisc player.

Of course, this exists: <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harmy%27s_Despeci...>

Probably a copy out in my garage someplace. No idea of the version though.

But, to another point, copyright is a convenient bogeyman in these discussions--and it plays a role. But someone would also need to pay for archiving all this material and indexing it in a manner that would actually be useful.

Also Project 4K77 is doing amazing work.

> Han shot first.

More specifically, Greedo didn't shoot at all. Not until it was messed with many years later.

It was a clear self-defence situation. I will never forgive the edits.

Marion Stokes recorded tens of thousands of hours of broadcast TV from the 80s to the 90s. Without her efforts, a huge chunk of US TV history would have disappeared.

HN discussion to an article about her from a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40702546

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