^^^ Sounds like a decent fellow.
So yes, what he's basically selling are UGC's, not the prints themselves.
If he's charging to print them, then he's charging for them, regardless of how he words it. I mean, I don't really care, but I could just as easily say that I'll ship you a free PS3 and all that you'd pay is a $300 handling charge.
It can't be free unless it is 100% free. The same goes for all that infomercial crap. "FREE set of knives with the juicer!" No, they've just priced it so that they make money on the transaction, period. Free is a bullshit term in sales. It means nothing and it's sole purpose is to attract suckers.
Now if he was doing it at zero profit, then we'd have a slightly different situation...