Erm... I'm a little confused of this entire discussion. Launch date is 20th. We are now in the Early Game Access stage.
From http://www.swtor.com/news/news-article/20111213
"Last month we revealed the details about Early Game Access*, in which players who pre-ordered Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ would have the opportunity to play the game several days prior to its official game launch on December 20, 2011, 12:01AM EST (Pacific: December 19th, 9:01PM PST; European: December 20th, 05:01AM GMT, 06:01AM CET). We are excited to inform you that we have begun inviting customers who have pre-ordered the game and redeemed their Pre-Orders at our Code Redemption Center into the Early Game Access program, and we will continue to bring more people in as we get closer to launch!"
As per the last sentence the game has not yet launched.