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Are Spreadsheets Software or Data?
ideveroux asks: "I have started a company which designs Excel Workbooks to duplicate paperwork required for Bingo Halls in Mississippi. In all my years of experience, I have never considered a spreadsheet itself as software, only Excel. However, the Mississippi Gaming Commission has gotten itself into my business and is trying to require me to license my company with them ($10,000.00 and government involvement) because any 'software' sold to bingo's have to be licensed by them. What is your take? Are the workbooks software by themselves? As a startup with no venture capital, I haven't the resources to secure an attorney, nor pay their extortion money. Thanks for your input." Spreadsheets have always existed in this grey area because they mix functionality with data. This issue has grown more tricky over the years as in-spreadsheet macros become more and more complex. I don't think of spreadsheet files as software, because you can't edit or execute a saved spreadsheet without it's associated application. However some can say that anything that implements an algorithm qualifies for term. What are your thoughts on the subject?
data
From the perspective of someone who uses a spreadsheet of information: This stuff is data, as essential to a corporation with thousands of names to manage as lights and heat.
Software regulators might as well license the software the power company uses, because it provides light to a casino using its software.
If you are gonna give businesses this break, though, you should give the government an equivalent public good in exchange for ceding this control and revenue from software licensing.
Governments should be able to easily break in and unwittingly subpoena the records of corporations like Enron, so they can't shred 'em.
Goat sex free since 2001
No technical definition of software will alter the circumstance, because technical issues are irrelevant to the those controlling the issue. 10,000 USD is a good fee from their point of view. It's much less than the cost of fighting the battle in court - which is also run by more Good 'Ol Boys.
I wish that there was a less pessimistic outlook. Welcome to the gap between perception and reality.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
It doesn't matter whether a spreadsheet can run without its app. Plenty of software has been written in languages that require an interpreter.
At least some spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) support programming languages for their macros. Clearly Visual Basic is a programming language, regardless of whether it's a good one. So anything that uses Visual Basic is an app.
Furthermore, you could argue that the mathmatical operations that a spreadsheet performs are themselves programming instructions. They're even formatted similarly to C function calls.
Basically, the only spreadsheet that could not be interpreted to be an application is one that contains data (and layout) only, and no functions.
I think it's fair to consider a spreadsheet that does something to be an application.
I just wanted to poke cliff in the ribs for defining software as something that doesn't require another application to execute.
Dude, you've just eliminated *all* scripting languages from the definition of software.
*My* next step would be to ask the gaming extortion folks where you can find the definition of 'software'. There should be one.
> I don't think of spreadsheet files as software,
> because you can't edit or execute a saved
> spreadsheet without it's associated
> application. However some can say that anything
> that implements an algorithm qualifies for
> term. What are your thoughts on the subject?
The are perl scripts programs or data? Just try to run a perl script without the interpreter.
I'm sure the case could be made that Excel interprets the spreadsheet file rather than just displays it, which would make spreadsheets programs of a sort.
-Chris
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
If ever a paradigm mixed logic and presentation then spreadsheets are it.
They are software throguh and through, no question.
It would be fairly trivial to write a Turing Complete Machine interpreter entirely in VBA in Excel and I'm sure the same must be true of other spreadsheets.
Just like php, spreadsheet's consider anything literal text unless otherwise instructed.
You can embed the excel engine as an ActiveX control in other applications and use it.
What other proof would one need?
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
If a spreadsheet contains nothing but data - no formulas or macros - then clearly it's data, not software. (You could just as easily distribute it as a tab-separated file, if you forgo fancy formatting.)
Macros written in a language like VBA are clearly programs: now your spreadsheet is a mixture of data and software.
An Excel formula can also easily be considered a program: it describes a computation in a form precise and formal enough that a machine can carry out the computation.
How many formulas or macros, and of what complexity, are necessary before a spreadsheet is "software" in the eyes of the law? The courts will probably have to decide this eventually; there may be no general answer. You might have to look at the purpose of the law.
In this case, the law is that bingo software must be licensed by the MGC. Why? I don't know, but perhaps it's to ensure that the taxes are paid, or that the books are kept accurately, or that the bingo numbers are drawn fairly. Then the court will probably consider whether the spreadsheet is involved in, and automates, those activities. If so, then the spreadsheet would probably be considered software that must be licensed by the MGC.
Cliff said, "... you can't edit or execute a saved spreadsheet without it's associated application." That is irrelevant. I can't execute a Perl or Python program without the right interpreter. I can't execute Java bytecodes without a VM. I can't execute Windows programs without an implementation of the Windows API. Software often relies on the presence of other software.
However, the spreadsheet described contains formulas and/or macros, so it seems correct to consider it software. Some sort of processing occurs against the data according to rules which you programmed via these formulas, macros, and/or VBA code.
The Excel application features a programmable interface, a BASIC interpreter. Excel (like Word, Access, Power Point, Visio, and Internet Explorer) features a Visual Basic for Applications interpreter as an Office Automation feature. A spreadsheet file can contain executable code which the VBA interpreter processes. These 'macros' can be protected, 'compiled', and delivered in a 'binary' format, and even function as an add-in.
This programmability feature is not unique to Microsoft. Star Office supports a similar macro programming language for all it's cooperating applications.
Programmable office suites existed well before Microsoft Office. Anyone recall Ashton-Tate's Framework? Recall Borland's Sprint word processor with that macro language that resembled C or perhaps C-Sharp??!! Many other office software packages and suites have macro features like this and even programmer software development kits.
Many will argue there is a fine line between office automation and programming. I think it's a shame that government regulators would pursue this instance. It's sort of like the old Visicalc files that did IRS Form 1040 calculations. But they were free downloads. Were they programs? I suspect they might be. Did the government regulate them? Nope, they were basically ignored.
If you are presenting these files as providing automation/functionality appropriate for a business, you seem to have crossed the line into being a developer. So, I would conclude you should pay up. Consider another type of legal business not requiring this sort of regulation and continual governmental probing. Your spreadsheets will probably have to pass some sort of audit regulation in the future.
Who cares if it's software in and of itself or not? Who cares if the Good 'Ol Boys commission wnats $10,000 dollars to play in thier sandlot.. If you design a product that will solve the bingo parlor's needs well enough, you should be to sell it as a package for a healthy chunk of the "Price to Play." I am also guessing that this is not the only Bingo place in Mississippi that has a PC. You could pitch your product to them as well, and even if you get 1 out of every 5 Bingo parlors to play, you should be able to pony up the dough fairly quickly... Oh, and just in case anybody is wondering, an Access *.mdb file is useless without some sort of runtime. I imagine the same is true for an Excel Workbook.
A spreadsheet that displays information is data. A spreadsheet that is user modifyable in an interactive way (i.e. like a payroll) is infact an application.
It is no less an application because it requires Excel than a java applet is because it requires JRE/JDK.
What we see depends on mainly what we look for. -- John Lubbock Now search for that bug slave!
I'll stay away from the tech aspects of this, but lookin into the positives. As one who lives in Nevada, the State Gaming Commission here is very paranoid about anything that goes on to make sure things stay fair and legal, they even regulate the chips that go inside Slot Machines. What happens if something in your spreadsheets would allow bingo operators to skim money (gameing is permitted for the tax revenues it generates not so you can have fun), or lie about the percentage of funds being returned to players as prizes (something you might want to know about). Just the opposite, by having a registered known working version they can than compare the version in use by someone running bingo games. If they find a discrepency they can use that to prosecute or at least start an audit. Part of it may be to insure your stuff doesn't deviate from accepted accounting practices. On the positive side if you sign up your become an authorized vendor giving you an edge over some other newbie !
I think there's a few key points that could be brought up to prove that this isn't software. A software application runs on a platform to provide some sort of functionality. Given this, we could examine the spreadsheet in the same way:
Q: Can you open and execute the spreadsheet on it's own?
A: No. The spreadsheet requires a proper spreadsheet application to view it.
Q: Does the spreadsheet provide any sort of functionality by itself?
A: It doesn't do this either. Again, you have to have the application in order to give the spreadsheet any functionality.
Q: If the spreadsheet has programmatic features, such as macros, can these be executed or used to provide functionality?
A: It can't do this either. Not only are they not capable of executing themselves without an application, the macros contained are not even cross compatible. That defines them as a feature of the application, rather than a feature of the spreadsheet.
Bottom line? I think they're jerking you around, and I wouldn't stand up for it. Even though you don't have a lot of resources, there are things you can do. Besides, if we don't defend our rights, who will?
Ok, count to 15...just do it! It seems ambiguous like a typical /. poll question.
You could in theory document how to completely create the execl FILES. Even build a extremely basic template for the file and sell that to individal bingo halls. Write the documentation in a plain text file with no formatting. I'd like to see them claim a plain text file is "software." Of course you couldn't sell it for near as much but you also could package your services to install the template and customize it for a specific hall. Just a thought there.
"If a quarter is two bits, then a dollar's a byte." -R Deric Miller
That said, two questions stand out to me:
On the flip side, it's possible that you're dead in the water because the good people of the great state of Mississippi have already decided that Excel spreadsheets shall be considered software, not data.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Many people here have said that a spreadsheet, even one with macros, is *not* software because you can't load it up in the computer's memory and run it like a program.
So, does that mean that any *interepreted language* can also be considered non-software because it can't run without its associated application?
If not, then if your spreadsheet has functions or macros in it that manipulate the data, then I think you have to call it software. If it's *just* data, then you shouldn't call it software.
I think you have to look at the "intention" of the item. If it's intended to be run by something, then it is software, otherwise it isn't.
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
As a startup with no venture capital, I haven't the resources to secure an attorney, nor pay their extortion money.
So if a Spreadsheet is software, you are out of luck because you can't pay the "extortion money". And if a spreadsheet is (are?) data, you are out of luck because you can't afford an attorney.
The bottom line is, you are out of luck. You might as well try playing Bingo for revenue.
Perhaps you could restructure yourself so that you can provide them with free software (as in beer and libre) and charge for your service somehow. Then they may not be able to rape you as bad. Just a thought, but of course, a lawyer is needed. Guess what that might end up costing you?
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
This sort of reminds me of the question that either Adobe or MS raised a few years ago about whether outline fonts were data or programs. The contention was that since Type 1 and TrueType fonts have some logic in them, they are in fact programs. IIRC, this was because programs were clearly protected under copyright laws, but fonts were not clearly defined at the time.
The closest thing I can find is a reference to a court case between Adobe and Southern Software, in which it was ruled that fonts are copyrightable. I can't find references to earlier cases, though I'm sure there were some.
In any event, there probably isn't a clear legal definition of what software is (heck, the dictionary definition isn't very clear) and whether spreadsheets or a particular spreadsheet is included in that definition. Unless you do some legal research or hire a lawyer to back up your claim, you are (as other posters pointed out) stuck with what the Mississippi Gaming Commission decides it is.
IANAL but I just had a look at the regs on the MGC's website (http://www.mgc.state.ms.us/), and I couldn't find mention of a regulation that all software sold has to be licenced. There is however a condition that any accounting system implemented has to fulfil certain criteria. When the bingo hall got its licence it had to submit details about what sort of accounting system it intended to implement. Note this is not neccessarily a computing system, but system in the broader sense of the word. The problem is that if they decide to IMPLEMENT (not purchase) a new accounting method they have to modify their gaming licence. Thus in reality you should not be the one responsible for costs of licencing your software, but the bingo hall may be.
Treating this as a theoretical debate, which is probably the only worthwhile way to discuss it here, the spirit of the law strikes me as this: If you're supplying equipment to gambling enterprises, you have to give a cut to the government. You are selling equipment to gambling enterprises. The intent of the law is for you to pay.
Again, how software is precisely defined is a different issue, and you should be asking a lawyer, not us.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Software - NOUN
Computer Science The programs, routines, and symbolic languages that control the functioning of the hardware and direct its operation.
Data - PLURAL NOUN
(used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. Factual information, especially information organized for analysis or used to reason or make decisions. 2. Computer Science Numerical or other information represented in a form suitable for processing by computer. 3. Values derived from scientific experiments. 4. See datum.
It's a very fine line. I personally would call an excel workbook data, but I'm not sure how well it can hold up in reality.
If the file consists of ones and zeros then it is data. Really there is no differece between an executable file and a text file. One is interpreted by a text editor and one is interpreted by a processor.
I guess that makes all software really data.
I guess you don't have to pay them anything.
You can implement a turing machine in a spreadsheet, and thus any algorithm. Thus, a spreadsheet is a program.
If we say that if you distribute something that - as a whole - can be used without help from other applications then it is software.
If you distribute something that needs a pre-existing package installed it is data.
By that logic - your spreadsheet, provided you don't package it with Excel itself, is data because the customer must supply the spreadsheet as data to the pre existing excel to get anything from it.
Same goes for interpreted languages, perl itself is software because you install perl and can use it - but a perl program distributed on it's own is data because it requires to be fed as data to the pre existing perl.
Well, it's a thought.
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I don't think of spreadsheet files as software, because you can't edit or execute a saved spreadsheet without it's associated application.
Java programs are byte code which require an interpreter (the jre). Perl/bash/csh scripts will not run without their associated program, yet they are all considered software.
No different than "The Mark Of The Beast", this is yet another example of exclusionary practices by licensing boards. This is the evil of licensure, of restricting an individuals libery not because of their actions, but only because someone has the authority to create the restriction.
It's their rule, they win. Pay the money, or get out.
Which leads me to wonder, what about the use of other software? If they have a Windows PC, does Microsoft have such a license?
Just wondering how obviously hypocritical they licensing board is.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
I'd argue in favor of the gaming comission on this one. Excel has a very nice scripting language known as formulas, and with VBA, it's even more powerful. I've seen Excel workbooks with dropdown menus in fields and all kinds of stuff.
Think about it in the context of a language run through an interpreter. Is the interpreter software? Yes. Are the programs that must use THAT PRORGAM to run also software? Yes. Excel workbook is the same way.
All programs require an application to run on, usually the one called the Operating System. The OS is simply an application on the BIOS, which is an appication on the chips firmware.
Try using your applications without an OS and see how far you get.
I think doing so would circumvent any argument that could be made against the native excel file format being software.
I got kicked out once when my comment was "If I wrote and tested product code to the same standard that you use for your spreadsheet code, you'd fire me."
Specifically, change your product to a service? You go in and "design" the spreadsheets for them, they pay for their own software licenses and whatnot?
--------
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All software is data and all data (if it's in a computing machine) is software. Programmers split them up in order to facilitate talking about them, but when you get down to it your computer is a state machine. It might seem that the 'software' manipulates 'data', but it's just as true that 'data' manipulates 'software'. If you try to separate them for legal reasons, you will only make laws that make no sense (as they seem to have done).
Laws that rely on a distinction between software and data should be challenged as ambiguous and thrown out. Is that VHS tape a bunch of data? You bet it is, but it's also analog software that runs on your VCR to display moving pictures with sound. There was a slashdot article a while back about weather or not DVDs are software. Of course they are! And they are data also. I know that there are bad legal implications of this, but that's because the laws are bad!
We thought that we were bad off when we let legislators write laws, but now that we let media companies write them, things are even worse. Our legislative bodies need large influxes of mathematitions and programmers. Logic seems to be in short supply at the state and federal level - at least in the U.S. (not to mention local, but they're hopeless).
Consider: Is '5' a program or data? It is certainly interpreted from it's representation within the computer to produce a literal '5'. I think it would be folly to argue that '5' is a program, though in the process of being presented to us, it controls many things, rather like a program. Still, we consider it data.
Now, consider (1+1/1000)^1000. Is that a program or data? It certainly requires interpretation to produce a result. But that result is an approximation to e, the base of the natural logarithms. We may also series expansion approximations to irrational numbers, like pi. Are those programs? I would still say no.
I'd say this because the result of these "programs" does not change with each run. Their output may as well be data. A program with no input (and I've yet to see a spread sheet prompt, when I have it recalculate, unless there is some error) always produces the same output and can be considered identical to that output. It is precisely because spreadsheets fix the data that their embedded formulas use, that the spreadsheet as a whole can be considered data. Unlike a program, a spreadsheet isn't "run", it just "is", once the numbers are entered. Errors in the embedded formulae are no different than errors in transcription, or manual processing of the numbers. Both these are subject to audit, so incorrect embedded formulae can be caught when the data is presented. This is not so with a program, where the input and output are distinct from the program itself.
In the same way that accounting records can be audited, spreadsheets can also be audited: all the intermediate steps are still there. There is no need to "pre-audit" or "license" the program to make sure it is correct.
You could've hired me.
Go to a local university, and try to get as many Computer Science professors to sign a letter that says that your product is not software. Use these letters as evidence.
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To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Conversely, what you consider to be data could also be argued to be a program. That MP3 file is a series of instructions to tell the MP3 interpreter how to construct something that resembles the original waveform. A MIDI file can contain loops - software of data?
You're really asking the wrong question. The question should be "Am I distributing anything that I didn't produce myself, and if so am I permitted to do so?" It doesn't matter whether it's software or data - if you're distributing someone else's copyright material, you need a license. I don't think a court would decide that a compiler write can claim copyright over the compiler's output, but library routines are a grey area.
Whatever happens, let this be a lesson - before you buy development tools, check whether their output can be used royalty free. If not, avoid these tools wherever possible.
Just my EUR 2.00 (nose-diving exchange rate) :-)
Every bloody emperor has his hand up history's skirt [Peter Hammill/VdGG]
If the spreadsheet contains algorithms in a computer readable form then it should be considered a program (at least partly) from a computer science point of view. If it were data it functions would be limited to providing input that is processed entirely by the undelying application. If it contains formulas it has to be considered to be more than pure data.
However the term software is not the opposite of data but of the term hardware. It may be well possible that some legal definitions use "software" to describe both - data and programs. You should try to find the regulations covering the fee you are expected to pay.
Line 9: Argument of type SIGNATURE expected.
I also looked up on the web site the part that they seem to be referring too. The Mississippi Gaming Commission has rules which governing software as it Relates to Gambling! If the software you are writing is not going to used for gambling, like generating results, they are clearly have overstepped their bounds, and you are not going to have to pay anything. Now if Excel spreadsheet is going to used for Gambling then they have some justification for their position. The issue is what type of software are you writing.
http://www.csupomona.edu/~hnriley/www/VonN.html
Mississippi State Law Uniform Commercial Code 75-9-102 (75) defines software as a computer program or any supporting information provided in connection with a transaction relating to the program. The term does not include a computer program that is included in the definition of goods. Mississippi State Law Uniform Commercial Code 75-9-102 (44) defines goods as ...a computer program embedded in goods and any supporting information provided in connection with a transaction relating to the program if (i) the program is associated with the goods in such a manner that it customarily is considered part of the goods.
Perhaps if you acted as consultants instead and did not sell the software you may not need a licence?
Unfortunately, common sense works very badly when it comes to regulation. Your best bet is to explain your situation to them, and maybe the press, politicians, etc, if you think you are being treated unfairly. It might not work for you, but maybe for the next guy :-(
Uh ... there is freeware spreadsheet software that you and your customers can use. But you say, they won't use anything else but Excel? So, you need to convert to Excell? There's such a thing as comma delimited format, so just have your program export the spreadsheet that way. The result doesn't import into Excel properly? Now who's fault is that? The moral of the story about licensing? The 800 pound gorilla will eventually be able to ignore standards, such as comma delimited format.
Licensing of software is a slippery slope, and there's no bottom. Afterall, who's licensed ASCII or EBCDIC? When will they start to clammor about royalties? How's about the rights to write ACSII to ferromagnetic media? What about the power companies? Afterall, if there was no juice going through your computers ... etc., etc., etc.
Sound over the top? Just keep going on with the licensing absurdity that exists today. You'll see it.
And chat with him about it.
If you belong to the right party, or make some sort of campaign contribution, the gaming commission will go away.
Being involved with the gambling industry without political affiliations is a really bad idea.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I have seen things run in excel that are obviously applications in their own right.
I guess the question is more of how much functionality you are adding. I think most of us would agree that most web pages are not applications, but some are. The fact is that a web browser can host an application; so can excel.
Are plug-ins, applets, activex controls software? I think so. Are the formulas used in excel software? No, I would call them the reason for being for a spreadsheet. Once you add VBA/macro languages we are moving into software. Since you've given no indication of what your spreadsheets do, I can make no judgements in your specific case.
SM
As people have said, though, it might depend on what your spreadsheets actually do. If you don't use any internal scripting language, and it is just your plain-old, vanilla spreadsheet that sums columns and such, then it's as much "software" as a pair of shoes and a walking stick could be called a "vehicle".
The important thing, though, isn't whether or not it's software, it's do they have a long-running policy of considering spreadsheets software, and have there been any exceptions. If you can show that your stuff is just like some other stuff that they don't consider software, then that would help. If they have a long-running policy with no exceptions, though, you're probably out of luck -- I doubt you want to spend years in court trying to overturn their policy.
You are creating a set of spreadsheets to perform a specific job. You have already stated that you want to sell them, so they must have some value.
If they are not a "program" then you won't mind if a customer gives away free copies, they are only spreadsheets.
We can chase our tail deciding what is a "program" technically. Your problem is someone requiring a license fee (I think the 10K is outrageous. Can you have someone outside your state sell the SW and maybe they don't need a license? Could also open other markets for you).
America is suppose to be a capitalist society and how do we decide when work you have performed in a SS / DB / etc is a "program"?
When you decide to sell it for money seems to be a pretty good test that inticates whatever you have created has some knowledge/value.
Note: I get annoyed with people calling custom DB's / SS's / etc "programs". When they are customized they are still DB's / SS's / etc. In this case I agree that the wording of "program" doesn't matter. The good ole boys are going to extort their 10K on the biz test of you selling the SS for money. Did you ask what they do with the money? Request a list of licensees and cut a deal with someone who has a license to sell SW.
Good Luck
I'm not really a coward!
Spreadsheets are data and behavior bundled together. Sounds more like the definition of an object than of code or data. And yes, code is data, and data can be code, and all that. But that's kind of beside the point.
Your problem is what the MGC and state law consider to be software, not what we Slashdotistas think. That has little or nothing to do with technology, sanity, or best practice in the industry. That involves our learned friends in the legal profession.
Get your teeth into a small slice: the cake of liberty
Spreadsheets are applications if they are used to have information inputted and then give results. They are data if they are not designed to have information inputted; they just contain static information that was already processed.
For example, a table of numbers that adds together each column to create a subtotal and then adds together the subtotals is an app if it is empty, waiting to be filled, but it is data if it is filled with information. There are means to distribute the information without including the application by converting to an HTML table or whatnot, so you should use that, if it is just data. So if you only want to distribute information, don't send the application (spreadsheet) with it.
I definitely think that spreadsheets are applications because I started programming with MS Works.
Clearly a workbook cannot be software, in the normal sense of the word. I hesitate to call a spreadsheet anything other than self-organizing, or perhaps scripted, data; however, "software" in the common vernacular denotes a functional program, which a workbook certainly isn't. Furthermore, there is no *requirement* for that data to be dynamically organized: often, it is static arrays of data.
Mississippi State Law Uniform Commercial Code 75-9-102 (75) defines software as a computer program or any supporting information provided in connection with a transaction relating to the program. The term does not include a computer program that is included in the definition of goods. Mississippi State Law Uniform Commercial Code 75-9-102 (44) defines goods as ...a computer program embedded in goods and any supporting information provided in connection with a transaction relating to the program if (i) the program is associated with the goods in such a manner that it customarily is considered part of the goods.
This is the research i conducted prior to offering up the spreadsheets. I know, i'm seeking lawyers and senators all next week, but it's nice to get a view on the subject matter from people within the technology arena.
Thanks for all the posts.
Ian
software
n : (computer science) written programs or procedures or rules
and associated documentation pertaining to the operation
of a computer system and that are stored in read/write
memory
Looks like spreadsheets are software to me.
Become a consultant that writes software for bingo parlors--go to each one, and offer your services--I imagine that there is a relativly small number anyway, and as that is basically what you would do to sell the prewritten spreadsheet, then what difference does it make, in this particular case. Show up, install, show how to use, leave.
Slackware: old school feel, new school gear.
I don't think of spreadsheet files as software, because you can't edit or execute a saved spreadsheet without it's associated application.
There are spreadsheet compilers around that can turn a spreadheet into a standalone application.
Most Java programs run in a virtual machine.
What is the difference? Not much that I can see.
So don't sell them an end product. Sell them the labor to create the product.
Here in Idaho we have sales tax. If I sold software then the customer would have to pay not only the cost of the creation of the software (which would include the cost of my doing business such as my taxes) but they would also have to pay sales tax.
Instead I create a product for them and they just contract my labor to do so. That gets around the double (triple) taxation.
And in your case it might be the only way to stay in the game since the government is obviously set in its ways to make sure you can't play.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Although I really do not grasp the need to pay a company to design spreadsheet layouts, you seem to have only one choice... Play ball, and pass the cost on to your customers. If you really fit a niche market, they'll have no choice (all part of the game... Remember, that extortion money works *for* you as well as against you, by giving you a virtual monopoly).
Most software runs under the control of another piece of software. For example, desktop apps (like Excel) tend to run under an OS (also a bonafide piece of software). So extending this another layer deep by having scripts and macros and worksheets execute under a dekstop app (that executes under an OS) seems pretty normal.
Is spreadsheets really are software, then that pushes the boundaries of the definition of software (an algorithm, process, or sequence of instructions) rather towards the simple side. :-)
If an excel spreadsheet becomes software, what then? Any sequence of instructions? In languages advertised as scripting languages only? Or what about user commands that get interpreted? Shell scripts? Batch files? Macros? Regular expressions? Markup? Hell, if postscript is a language to program your printer in, then HTML is a language to program your browser in. What about when code is generated automatically? (Like recording macros). Am I producing software right now? (Do you think that microsoft could sue anyone who uses view-page source on their website?)
At the end of the day, it comes down to pragmatics. If the spreadsheets are complex enough for you to sell and get money for, then the chances are that anyone reasonable is going to tend to consider them "software", even though the precise legal definition may be so vague as to be bunkum.
I think that ideveroux is confused. Public purchasing law in MS requires that any IT related purchase over $10,000.00 be bid out. I am 99.999% sure that he doesn't have to pay anything to get his software used. I think he just has to win a bid that is put out (which requires him to register with the State in his response), and his problem will be solved. Of course, if he is charging over $10k for a spreadsheet something is wrong in the first place.