This is a 17 year old application and at the time of release it was sold on the official website for a certain price. It's impossible to say now if the product is free or not, but from what it looks, I don't think it's possible to acquire it anymore, regardless of its current license type.
To answer your question, no, the product wasn't free at the time of release. Also, use other applications that are constantly updated instead of these ones.
