开源软件面临严重的可持续性危机。1根据Tidelift 2024年的调查，60%的开源维护者未获得任何报酬，其中61%的无薪维护者独自维护项目。1哈佛的研究进一步揭示了这一问题的规模：仅5%的开发者产生了96%的开源价值，若开源软件消失，企业需花费8.8万亿美元重建相应功能。12024年xz后门事件深刻暴露了这一隐患，一个Linux关键压缩库长达两年被恶意维护者植入后门，该维护者是无偿工作的个人。1
尽管企业已向开源供应链企业支付巨资，但这些资金未能流向实际的软件维护者。1JFrog 2025年收入达5.32亿美元，同比增长24%；Docker 2024年收入为2.07亿美元；Snyk年收入约3.26亿美元。1然而这些收益来自围绕开源软件的基础设施和服务，而非开源项目本身。1历史上，直接向用户收费的尝试多告失败——React在2017年因许可证争议改为MIT许可，Elasticsearch、Terraform、Redis先后尝试收费后均因社区分叉而被迫放弃。1
为解决这一困境，有人提议在软件包注册表层面向企业用户收费，并自动将收入按月按依赖树权重分配给软件包维护者，无需申请或复杂决策流程。1Docker的商业模式提供了可行性参考：其2020-2024年收入从约1200万美元增至2.07亿美元，拥有超100万付费用户，证明在开源生态中建立可持续的商业模式是可能的。1
Open source software faces a critical sustainability crisis, with the vast majority of volunteer maintainers receiving no compensation for their labor. According to a 2024 Tidelift survey, 60% of open source maintainers work without payment, and 61% of unpaid maintainers maintain their projects entirely alone 1. Harvard research underscores the economic stakes: just 5% of developers generate 96% of open source value, and the loss of open source would cost enterprises $8.8 trillion to rebuild 1.
Despite companies channeling billions of dollars into open source infrastructure—with JFrog generating $532 million in revenue (24% growth in 2025), Docker reaching $207 million in 2024 revenue, and Snyk earning approximately $326 million annually—these payments have not reached individual software maintainers 1. The disconnect became starkly apparent in 2024 when a single unpaid volunteer maintained an undetected backdoor in xz, a critical Linux compression library, for two years 1.
To address this funding gap, one proposal suggests implementing a fee-based system at the package registry level targeting enterprise users, with revenue automatically distributed monthly to package maintainers based on dependency tree weightings, eliminating the need for applications or governance decisions 1. The Docker business model demonstrates viability for this approach: between 2020 and 2024, Docker's revenue grew from approximately $12 million to $207 million, supported by over one million paid users 1. Previous attempts by other projects—including React's 2017 shift from BSD+Patents to MIT licensing, and failed monetization efforts by Elasticsearch, Terraform, and Redis that triggered community forks—highlight the challenges of unilateral licensing changes, making a registry-level mechanism potentially more acceptable 1.
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