Would you like to wipe the footer completely? If so, you should
create a skin module and add "[path-to-your-skin]/customer/en/layout/main.footer.tpl" file with the following contents:
Code:
{*
* @ListChild (list="layout.main", weight="500")
*}
This empty file should replace the existing one (and make the footer empty).
You can use a single module to do both the jobs (adding the skin and hiding other widgets).