Queen Productions may not be as bad as the whingers make out, if compared to "customer" reviews of George Lucas's and his so called butchering of the upcoming Blu-Ray release is any indication. The Blu-Ray package will not be released for another week, but 867 stepfords and whingers have already rated it (mostly one star and 5 star reviews) on Amazon.com.
Like Queen Productions, George Lucas can not leave the original artform unaltered, although George Lucas's alleged sins against art appear to be more serious than QPL's sins against art.
Here's the link to the premature customer reviews: link
Since you draw the comparison with Lucas's alterations to the six primary Star Wars films repeatedly over time, I take your meaning to be drawing parallels with QPL doing the same with Queen's releases.
QPL have not gone back and removed music or added music, with two exceptions: the re-instated bass drum in "Jealousy" and the re-instated second finale on "Tutti Frutti" on Wembley. It's hardly in the same league as Greedo Firing On Han.
Or maybe you refer to how George treats his fans, by committing such offences as allowing young filmmakers and artists to use his intellectual property for their own projects. Any fan can make a Star Wars-related movie, song or work of art without fear of Lucasfilm calling the lawyers so long as they aren't making money on it. This makes life vastly easier for aspiring directors and writers, who either whip up a film in their backyard with their buddies or are working on their undergrad degree film school projects. They can be posted online, either on personal websites and on YouTube, without infringing on copyright.
What were QPL's sins again? A few missed opportunities and standardized worldwide re-issues? The latter is a good thing and the former can be rectified at anytime.
I was simply suggesting that QPL is not as bad as George Lucas with respect to altering the artform, an opinion that you seem to agree with.
There are, however, more than the two Jealousy and Tutti Frutti alterations. There are of course, occasional vocal alterations / additions to live concert releases. Also, I seem to remember a thread complaining about how the drum sound was butchered due to mastering and or remixing decisions link
Of course George Lucas is better than QPL in some ways. George Lucas has not released a "super dee duper" collector edition after fans have bought the standard edition ... at least not yet ...
I would not be surprised if a few years from now, an expanded DVD edition will be released with remastered original versions without Vader's pink light saber nor blinking ewoks.
As an artist, I fully understand the desire George has to go back and fix the things that drove him nuts for years; limitations in his vision caused by budget and the technology of the era. I look at my old work and I cringe sometimes. And I don't have millions of rabid fans who have practically created a religion out of my work. I tend not to Lucas-bash because I accept that he was making it all up as he went along and still is. To call him on it achieves nothing.
Read Michael Kaminski's "The Secret History Of Star Wars," it's a good place to start understand what George was doing with his epic. The author hunts down every draft of each script and nearly every interview available given throughout the six films where GL or those close to him discussed what the story was and what his motivation was. The changes are as remarkable as what remained consistent throughout, just not what George now claims and certainly not what you'd expect.