S3K is still, to my knowledge, in legal hell right now.
I'm not sure what the legal issue would
be, though. Has anybody ever explained this? If it's solely about the music, one would've thought it'd have snagged stuff like the Xbox 360, Xbox One, Steam and PS3 releases of the original, not to mention the multiple compilation discs released in the generation prior across multiple platforms.
Indeed, Sonic 1/2's music was in a legal quagmire of its own where SEGA were unable to remix music from those games without paying out hefty royalties to the composer, who still owns those tracks. That's why Sonic Adventure 2's Green Hill uses the original music, why the only remixed Sonic tracks in Smash are from Sonic 3, etc. They obviously chose to pay out for Generations. It's also of course why the 'Round Clear' music was replaced after Sonic 2 but then remained the same forever after that, because Masa owned it. That's also why there was no official Sonic 1/2 soundtrack release until 5 years ago - it took that long to convince Masa to do it.
Even if a similar issue exists with the Jackson music, the emulated rereleases suggest that SEGA still owns the music as-is, those versions that were featured in the original game... and a Taxman release wouldn't remix, so... right?
I dunno, ah, it's confusing, but I've always thought the 'legal issues' around S3K's music was a red herring. If you could explain otherwise/why that'd be very enlightening though
