A co-op company was about where I was thinking.

Can't the community set up a co-op company, and ask sponsors to put up the initial set-up fees including insurance? It would only need one insurance for the team.

Then developers buy in to the co-op (at a small annual fee). The co-op takes responsibility for making sure that apps are properly tested and as safe as possible (the community already does that bit) and publishes to Ovi. The monies received from Ovi get sent back to the developer.

Is that a non-starter?

While I'm all for 'open source' meaning anyone can publish from anywhere, the reality is the Ovi store is where people look. Take a look at any of the reviews appearing now: they are only looking at Ovi... not even maemo-extras before they start *****ing abou the lack of apps. People need presence there.