This is a common misconception about the chessd project. I've seen chessd described, quite improperly, as having degraded into nothing more than license lunatics. This can't be father from the truth. One of our primary goals is to futher the game of chess. By using a BSD-style license, we can help establish standards.
People can easily take parts of chessd to write a client for chessd, and sell it in a boxed set.
We don't shun the idea of commerical clients. If anything, we love the idea. That's because commerical companies can get software out easier. They have advertising and influence that free client authors don't have. We'd love for there to be tons of high quality free clients.