It is run by a group of enthusiastic Kaleidescape owners and dealers purely as a service to this community.
... but we strongly encourage you to register for a full account. There is no cost to register for a full account.
It is a player/server combo although as far as being a server, it isn't as robust as a dedicated server. The player/server combos like the Alto and Strato can serve other players off their hard drive, but they cannot support as many live streams as a Premier or Terra server can.