who made who

I keep thinking about the needless changes that George Lucas makes to Star Wars and all this tinkering being performed raises the question who really owns art. He might own the intellectual rights and is certainly free to butcher the good will the audience might feel to his intellectual property, but one a piece of “art” has been released its really no longer the authors.
Film is also a form of collaboration that differs from many other types of art, in that there are many talented cooks that are responsible for the finished product. I’m not a believer in the Auteur theory of film, because it ultimately says that the director is the only voice that counts, throwing out the contributions of the actors, cinematographers, sound designers, lighting designers, art directors, costume designers, Composer, and the screen writer. A director might have a vision, but having that vision interact with other creative types produces a better finished product. Take The Empire Strikes Back, it was directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, from a story by George Lucas. Lucas was never on set, he was busy setting up his toy empire and special effects department, so would this film belong to Kershner. The snappy dialogue and genuine human emotions came from the script by Lawrence Kasdan, would also have some claim to ownership to film as well.
The audiences’ enthusiastic embrace of the original film also begs the question of ownership because a film also becomes a type of artifact and the really good ones are something that we share. My first exposure to star wars was through my parents, one day if I have kids I would have liked to share this artifact with them, not the “special editions” but the version of film that was originally released. His argument that those were unfinished and each subsequent alteration made was what he originally intended is completely insane. I am not a fan of the final cut of blade runner nor is Ridley Scott trying to remove all ambiguity from the film, but what I like that the final cut blue ray has every single version of the movie available.
I would accept these ridiculous additions made to star wars, if the original was available. But by continuing to say that the version I encountered was invalid makes me sour on the movie anyway.