>>> These days [...] 3.9 is considered an illegal pirate release.

>> By whom?

> It is pretty common knowledge that H&P never paid royalties from OS3.9 to
> Amiga Inc and McBill ultimately declared it illegal :-o

I don't remember AmigaOS 3.9 ever been declared illegal by Bill McEwen. What I remember is H&P's "AmigaOS XL" package (containing Amithlon, "AmigaXL for QNX" and AmigaOS 3.9) being declared illegal by Amiga Inc. for non-paid OS3.9 royalties.

> To make things even more unsavory, OS3.9 includes an entirely
> pirate version of Genesis TCP/IP Stack.

The unlicensed software component in 3.9 was AmiTCP, not its GUI Genesis. Amiga Inc. or Bill McEwen didn't ever seem to object to that.

> That's probably another one of the reasons both OS3.5 and OS3.9 are
> not considered canon.

OS3.5 didn't contain AmiTCP but a fully licensed demo version of Miami.
Anyway, the fact that Hyperion of all parties (basing AmigaOS 4.x on AmigaOS 3.1) mentions AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9 as regular AmigaOS releases on their websites speaks volumes. And several dealers still offering the allegedly "illegal pirate" AmigaOS 3.9 for sale only adds to that fact.