What does voluntary compliance mean?

Voluntary compliance is a confusing term, because it means something different than the sum of the two separate words. I am going to attempt to explain what it means and some of the implications of the use of this approach.

As we all know, compliance means following the rules. If the rule says no throwing trash on the street, we comply with the rule when we put our trash in a trash can instead. In fact, most of us do this without even having to be reminded and even though the chances of us being arrested or even getting a citation are very small (In the U.S. at least). It is not fear of the criminal justice system that makes us comply. It is knowing the rules and having been taught that using the trash can is the proper thing to do. In this sense, using the trash can is voluntary. It does not happen because someone threatened us with either force or the law. Does this mean that no one throws trash on the ground? Absolutely not. There are rule breakers everywhere. There are even rule breakers in those places, like Singapore, where you really would get punished for throwing trash on the ground. Even in a voluntary compliance system like New York, there is always the threat of legal enforcement in the background. Why not always just rely on legal enforcement? Just call the police, file a law suit, or make a citizen’s arrest. There are many reasons.

1. Sometimes there are so many potential law breakers that it is simply not possible to watch them all full time.
2. Sometimes people honestly do not know the rules. Punishing them severely may be unjust.
3. Putting people in prison is expensive. Most likely a cost/benefit analysis would not show imprisoning people to have a good payoff in terms of future crime prevented.
4. Involvement the court system often stigmatizes people, which in turn can lead to more antisocial behavior in the future.
5. Punishing individuals can have negative effects on their families such as removing a parent from a home.
6. Punishment doesn’t happen until after the wrong act has occurred, it would be better to stop the lawbreaking from happening than to focus on responding after the fact.

In the Joomla! universe we can see similar processes in action. Why would OSM not immediately seek to enforce the GPL by filing a law suit?

1. There are so many proprietary developers, it might not be fair to single out one. Further there are probably many that we don’t even know about. Although it might scare the others, this effect is likely to be temporary.
2. It may be that some proprietary developers really have not carefully studied the GPL or understood its implications.
3. Suing might be expensive and not worth it if other alternatives are available.
4. Someone who is sued would probably not want to work with Joomla! in a positive way in the future.
5. Suing a developer might harm his or her customers or employees.
6. Suing a developer as a strategy doesn’t take place until after a violation has occurred; it would be better to focus on preventing violations before they happen.

So how, besides teaching children, do we get people to follow the rules? In fact, there are many, many rules that are enforced primarily by voluntary compliance and their approaches can be classified in various ways. For example, “situational crime prevention” proposes 25 types of approaches. Although license violation is not a crime, these ideas can still apply. Here are some examples.

“Remove the excuses” by among other things: setting rules; posting instructions, assisting compliance, and alerting the conscience. “Reduce provocations” by, among other things, reducing peer pressure for wrongful behavior and discouraging imitation of wrongful behavior by others. Other categories of approaches include increasing the effort involved in violating the rules, increasing the negative consequences associated with violation (negative consequences include many consequences that are well short of taking legal action, starting with embarrassment), and reducing the rewards.

Many in the U.S. are surprised to learn that the Internal Revenue Service relies primarily on a system of voluntary compliance. This shows just how successful voluntary compliance can be. Here is the definition of voluntary tax compliance from the GAO:

Voluntary Compliance; A system of compliance that relies on individual citizens to report their income freely and voluntarily, calculate their tax liability correctly, and file a tax return on time. (GAO-05-1009SP)


A recent General Accountability Office report (GAO-07-391T) on how to increase compliance notes that there is currently “high, sustained levels of taxpayer compliance” but points out ways in which this could be even higher. For example, the report argues that “providing quality services to taxpayers also is a necessary foundation for voluntary compliance.” That is, one of the best ways to encourage people to follow the rules is to give them clear, understandable and accurate information about what the rules are and how they apply to their particular situations. Similarly another report said

Some experts believe that simplicity and transparency can contribute to compliance, as voluntary compliance is likely to increase if taxpayers are less likely to make errors on their tax returns and have fewer opportunities to evade taxes. (GAO-05-1009SP)

So, what does all this have to do with Joomla!? First, people are wondering whether there will be legal actions (i.e. law suits) against developers who do not immediately comply with the GPL. In adopting the voluntary compliance approach, the core team and OSM are saying that legal actions will be the very last resort, only after strong efforts (reflecting variety of approaches) to achieve compliance have failed. These efforts start with making clear what the terms of the license are and why they are so. This effort has already started. Now is the time to begin other efforts. They might include some of the following items.
• Education about what GPL does and does not require and the difference between commercial and proprietary;
• Showing the community the benefits of having commercial extensions licensed under GPL;
• Helping developers think about their business models;
• Helping developers understand the risks that both OSM and they face from original copyright holders if there is non compliance with the GPL;
• Helping developers understand ways in which there may (or may not) be code based solutions that could be compliant;
• Working to change community norms so that, for example, Joomla! end users understand why downloading unmodified code from warez sites rather than purchasing commercial GPL from the developers can be risky and harmful.

These efforts are much more likely to be successful and cost effective than any legal filing against a single extension by a single developer would be. Success in the case of this issues means, in my opinion, achieving two things:1. compliance with the GPL and 2. retaining (and growing) the commercial developer community as an important part of the Joomla! ecosystem. Law suits and other quick, dramtic actions are unlikely to achieve these goals.


Crime Reduction 20 July 2004 “Situational Crime Prevention Techniques.” http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/learningzone/scptechniques.htm

Government Accountability Office. January 23, 2007 “Tax Compliance: Multiple Approaches Are Needed to Reduce the Tax Gap” GAO-07-391T http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-07-391T


Government Accountability Office September 13, 2005. “Understanding the Tax Reform Debate: Background, Criteria, & Questions” GAO-05-1009SP
http://www.gao.gov/htext/d051009sp.html