The author of this wordpress theme released it GNU/GPL. So, if you can figure out how to get rid of the links, you can remove them without violating the licensing agreement :)
Yep... once you unzip the file, there's a file called "footer.php." There is only one very long line of code in there that begins like this
ce the author of this template went through the trouble to obfuscate his gold selling links in base64 code, I'm a little hesitant to use it until someone more knowledgeable than me goes through it with a fine tooth comb.
If you find a template that you like, you can sub out that footer.php file for the base 64 one. When you do though, you will have to edit so that the copyright info is back on it. Once you open one that isn't encoded, you will see that it is easy.