RenderMan is now free for all non-commercial purposes, including evaluations, education, research, and personal projects. The non-commercial version of RenderMan is fully functional without watermark or limitation. For further details please refer to Pixar's Non-Commercial RenderMan FAQ.
http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849
Free as in beer, at least. I see no problem with that. Good on Pixar for doing some good. Just because they fall short of some sort of arbitrary ideal, it doesn't mean they're bad people or that this licensing method is a useless gesture.
So this is non-free.