@dirigent

Quote:

The contract between S. Rupprecht and Hyperion talks about payment upon release, not completion.

Yes, and Hyperion claims to have completed it by releasing update2 to the Developer Pre-Release.

Come on --- do you seriously want to suggest anyone turn up in front of a judge and say "Well, your Honour, we completed it in late 2004. We then released updates 2,3,4 and final to the Developer Pre-Release, in late 2004, 2005 and 2006, each time bringing the Pre-Release up-to-date with the latest developments. But we never released what we completed in 2004, you see, we only released updates to the uncompleted Pre-Release. So, you see, we have an updated un-completed released OS which is not OS4, and a completed, un-released OS, which is OS4; They just both happen to be the same thing, but never mind that!"

Heck, I don't want to look through the PDFs now, but I distinctly remember "completed and released in 2004" from the Evert Carton declaration. Or you could check the December 24, 2006 announcement of "IT'S DONE", which refers to OS4 as "originally released in 2004" (and if you read the comments, you will find me questioning "HyperionMP" back then about the "completion" date, and HyperionMP being quite evasive and non-committal).