The issue is that copyright protects the right to distribute the work. Whether there is profit or not does not enter into it.
If printed copies of some current best seller and handed them out to people, there would not be any profit---in fact I would lose money---but I still would be in violation of copyright.
Or if I at my own expense made bootlegs of some hit show and gave them out for free--that would still be a violation of copyright even though there is no profit.
