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?

Comments

Get a lawyer

[coyote-san]

Get a local lawyer with some knowledge about the field. This is one of those questions where what we think doesn't matter - it will all down to local statutory and case law.

That said, two questions stand out to me:

• Is "software" even legally defined in the State of Mississippi? It's possible that "software" is either undefined, or it's defined in some archaic fashion. E.g., are you providing your spreadsheet via a stack of EBCDIC encoded punch cards containing Fortran or COBOL source code?
  

  
  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.
  
  

• Has Microsoft paid the $10,000 fee for their license? Or $100,000, if you treat the OS, browser and Office components as separate programs? What about the other utility software? If they haven't, and the statute or regulations don't provide for exceptions, then this is preferential enforcement and that should raise some eyebrows. But then again, you're trying to sell something that's specific to Bingo halls operating in Mississippi, not a general tool.