The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website has word that free character transfers are now available for some players in BioWare's MMORPG (thanks Massively). Here's word:

The initial character transfer service is now available, allowing qualifying characters to be transferred at no charge from selected origin servers to selected destination servers. This character transfer service will be available as long as is required to help maintain population balance across the service and create a better overall gameplay experience. Select servers will be eligible for free character transfers based on the player populations of the origin and destination servers.