I would agree with Pi Mu Rho. The article you linked does not state it's a law that agmes come out on Friday. In the US over 99% of all movies come out on Tuesday, but it's not a law that they do. (I'd say on average 1 or 2 movies come out on Friday a year.)
They may hold it back until...
Actually, I do believe this would be legal. When I worked for a movie store I know that if a competitor released a movie early we had to notify the movie studio, and if it was still on thier shielf an hour later we were allowed to release it.
You will be able to play it on the release date. If you can buy it in a store before the release date those stores are in violation of the law and you should report them.
Before you are posting something that you think is new do everyone a favor and do a search on the forums for it first.
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/search.php?searchid=149860
You might find that there is hunders of posts already on this subject, and several threads with many solutions...
Halo is coming out the 9th of next month. Halflife 2 is aiming to come out the 28th of next month. Halo 2 is already done, there is no way it's going to be delayed for a month. There is no way half life 2 is going to come out a full month early.
Yeah, that's why they called the second release the game of the year edition. Because pretty much ever magazine on the face of the earth awarded it game of the year.
It would be completely retarded to do the fourth preload as a CSS update. Especially since I'm sure some of the CZ people have no intereset in HL2 at all. It just makes no sense at all.
On the other hand loading additional CSS content in preperation for an expanded beta, or just for release...