This is the release. These aren't candidate release images. They're just likely waiting until 13:10 GMT to officially announce it. I believe 13.04 was released at 13:04 too.
From that page, it is clear that Ubuntu uses the FSF definition of "free" (and quotes it).
The suggestion that Ubuntu will be closed source in the future is FUD. Everything that Canonical ships in Ubuntu is open source with an open bug tracker and open version control.
(with the exception of proprietary drivers and Flash, etc, written outside the project, done for pragmatic reasons and optional with a clear option at installation time; this stuff has not increased but reduced in scope with things like nouveau available now).
