I hope I don’t seem rude saying this, but I lived with a Shareware developer so..
I want to point out that this footer edit is a feature of the Pro version. There is clearly a lot of time and thought and programming that went into this theme. I hope users will choose to support the man behind the theme so he can (a) live and (b) continue to develop it.
Also, when you pay for the theme you get more support, which enables you to do even more customization more easily. I figure having the free features and user interface give us many great sites, and also give us the opportunity to know if we can do what we want to do. Then, if we like it, paying is the next step.
