How could you charge for a binary if people can just compile it on their own...? Honor system? I guess you could make it inconvenient to compile, but then is that really OSS?

It's interesting to reflect on what you're saying: you'd pay someone who forces you to, but not otherwise. So if someone built a house for you you'd only pay them if they threatened to come and burn it down, or they kept some way to remotely lock you out of it?

Hmmm. Well it’s software/IP, so as always I think we need to stay away from “would you download a car” talk.

With that in mind, the proposition is basically just the honor system. Which maybe works a little sometimes, among professionals? I paid for SublimeText to support them, for example. But WinRar is a very compelling counter example.

It feels like publishing a pdf of a book but with a big red “don’t click this until you’ve Venmo’d me $5!” above it. Regardless of what I individually would do, that’s just kinda… goofy?

> How could you charge for a binary if people can just compile it on their own...?

You don't make a binary publicly available, then you put the binary behind a paywall.

Some examples:

- Ardour - Lets you pull down the source and compile locally for free, or you pay to use their compiled binaries. Author/creator of Ardour hangs around on HN, maybe they could share their experience if they see this.

- Radium - Another DAW like Ardour, does it the same way.

- Fritzing - Designer for PCBs, same approach, pay for the binaries if you'd like, but free to compile from source if you can

I'm sure there are many more examples out there, but these are the ones I thought about when I wrote my previous comment.