Essay proposes royalty model to fund open-source maintainers
Laurie Voss argues package registries and supply-chain vendors could redirect part of existing corporate spending to maintainers through dependency-based royalties.
Open-source maintainers could be funded through royalties collected at the package-registry and software supply-chain layers, according to a proposal by developer and writer Laurie Voss.
In an essay published on Seldo.com and carried by Hacker News, Voss argues that companies already spend heavily on dependable access to open-source software through services provided by firms such as JFrog, Docker and Sonatype. The proposed model would direct a fixed share of that spending to maintainers whose packages appear in customers’ dependency trees.
The charge would apply to corporate use at the registry or mirror layer, rather than changing open-source licences. Individuals, small teams, students and open-source projects would remain outside the proposed charging model, while larger companies would pay through subscriptions or existing supply-chain services.
Payments would be calculated pro rata and distributed automatically, based on packages used by paying customers. Voss identifies npm, PyPI, Docker Hub and Maven Central, alongside vendors including JFrog and Sonatype, as potential collection and distribution points.
The proposal responds to concerns that voluntary funding schemes have struggled because companies that do not contribute receive the same software as those that do. The essay cites existing efforts including npm fund, Flossbank, Ruby Together and thanks.dev, while presenting the registry model as a way to connect existing corporate spending with the people maintaining the underlying code.
No registry or supply-chain vendor has confirmed adoption of the model. Questions around private mirrors, package forks, fraud and dependency attribution also remain unresolved.
