free Colonization clone, get it at: http://freecol.sourceforge.net/

Isnt this illegal?

no it isnot because it is NOT COLONIZATION it is somekind of new version of it,like colonization 2 or something like that.

When will an actual, playable version be released?

When will an actual, playable version be released?
Although still incomplete, the current Freecol 0.3 is playable to a "multiplayer win"..

And re the previous post about it being different from the initial Colonization, that is not so as is apparent when you read the introduction at their website.

Their first step is to get the game going as close to the original as possible (with the new, better graphics under Java of course) and then proceed from there to a Freecol 2 version.