[cc-community] Is CC right for me and my project?

Terry Hancock hancock at anansispaceworks.com
Fri Oct 13 12:36:22 EDT 2006


Jeremy Davis wrote:
>  On 10/11/06, drew Roberts <zotz at 100jamz.com> wrote:
> > On Wednesday 11 October 2006 12:02 am, Jeremy Davis wrote:
> >> I've created a spreadsheet file which is a flat rate pricing
> >> guide for Service & Repair contractors
> >
> > My first take without a lot of thought is that there are probably
> > calculations going on in that spreadsheet and it is more like an
> > interpreted program with the spreadsheet program serving as the
> > language interpreter.
> >
> > If that thinking holds then the GPL would be fine.
>
>  Would this really apply to the GPL (or other software-type open
>  source license) instead of CC?

IMHO, you're on the boundary between code and text with a spreadsheet, 
so either will do.  CC-By-SA has simpler requirements, so I'd recommend 
using that (for example, in order to conform to the GPL, the entire GPL 
license must be included in the package, which is an irritating amount 
of baggage for a single-file work, secondly, the whole issue of source 
vs binary is kind of irrelevant because spreadsheets tend to be in 
standardized file formats (how would somebody distribute improperly?  
what is the "source"?).

Hence, I would argue that spreadsheets in standard forms are "more data 
than code", so the CC license makes sense.

 > It's true, there are calculations
>  (functions) in the spreadsheet file, but there are no macros running
>  or recorded. I was simply looking at this as a text-type of document,
>  but not necessarily as a program or software-type. Maybe I'm wrong,
>  and releasing a spreadsheet file has no copyright authenticity, or
>  form of ownership, and thus I should release it on the net without
>  any sort of disclaimer.

No, I imagine a spreadsheet document is copyrightable in most 
jurisdictions. In any case, it won't hurt to apply a free license to 
clear up any ambiguity (if you feel it's unethical to claim any right in 
it, you may want to *dedicate* the work to the public domain, or simply 
use a very open license like CC-By or the MIT/X11 license).

Cheers,
Terry

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com



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