Or possibly don't offer an open source build at all. If someone wants an executable, they pay for a distribution of it, while they can get the source code for f

Or possibly don't offer an open source build at all. If someone wants an executable, they pay for a distribution of it, while they can get the source code for free. This opens the door to the possibility of someone else making builds and distributing them for free (legally), but there may be something to be said for you being the original source of the software, rather than a third-party. If you can market your website as the place to get the software, maybe enough people won't bother looking for other sources anyway. EDIT: ...depending on who your market is, of course. If I found a website distributing software as described, I would first look for a free build of it somewhere else, figuring that it probably exists. Failing that, I would probably download the source code and spend a small amount of time trying to make it build. If I can get it built in short order, then great. If not, then I'd probably buy the "official" build, depending on the cost and how much I want the software. (It might be more cost efficient for me to keep trying to get the build to work, vs. pay a high distribution fee.) But I am not the average computer user. Neither are most people who read this website. Most computer users have little or no concept of what open source is, no capacity for building software from source, and, I suspect, less savvy when it comes to finding a build from a third party. So if your software's target userbase is not computer nerds, then charging a distribution fee for a build may be more feasible... and not unjust, either, as you are truly providing a service to such people, compared to just offering source code, anyway, which, in theory they could learn how to build, or could pay another programmer to build for them.