H1B Visa: Is it allowed to publish FREE apps on AppStore / GooglePlay

[Vladimir Popko]

I found a lot of questions related to publishing PAID apps while being on H1/L1 visas. And it's absolutely clear that this is illegal as you get income from that.
But what about FREE apps. Is it legal to publish FREE apps? It means that I won't get any financial income from that at least until I got GC.