Polly Introduces an Open Source Maintenance Fee

A few weeks ago, the author explored the trend of open-source projects adopting paid or dual-licensing models, considering whether artificial intelligence is hastening this transformation. They questioned whether the accessibility of code has rendered maintenance an afterthought. The article titled "From Open Source to Paid Product: Is AI Accelerating the Shift?" garnered 45 reactions and 38 comments in its first three minutes.

One project exhibiting a unique approach to funding is Polly, a highly popular .NET resilience library. Polly is now implementing an Open Source Maintenance Fee (OSMF). The project's license remains unchanged, and Polly stays open source. However, organizations generating at least $20,000 from a product utilizing Polly must pay $20/month per organization for maintained releases.

This model, termed OSMF, presents an intriguing solution to the challenge of sustaining open-source projects. Unlike changing the license or moving the source code to a proprietary model, maintainers can levy a modest maintenance fee from organizations using their maintained releases in revenue-generating products. The fee collection can be facilitated via GitHub Sponsors, allowing projects to set their own pricing or tiers. The source code remains accessible under its open-source license.

For Polly, the $20 monthly fee translates to $240 annually, a relatively minor sum for companies earning at least $20,000 from a product using it. The administrative burden, however, might prove more challenging than the fee itself. The author muses on the implications of this approach in the corporate landscape, reflecting on the familiar process of purchasing project licenses.

The article concludes by inviting readers to share their thoughts on OSMF or other innovative strategies for sustaining open-source projects in the age of artificial intelligence.