The only free way is DAZ Studio at the moment.
Poser 5 was given away for free a while ago but only for a short time.
If you are looking for posing figures for say sculpts or get your feet wet with 3D you can do that well enough with Studio. Also you can check out the freeware sites for tons of Poser props, most of which work with Studio.
There is a excellent and versatile free male character named Apollo Maximus which I highly recommend for both applications.
Get it here: http://www.antonkisieldesigns.com/~akfiles/htmlpages/ApolloMaximusFree3dhumanfigure.htm