What license should I use with a project that is primarily data?

Question

I have a project that is a resume.

The resume, and the data contained within it are the heart of the project and written in a data format (XML).

There is also, however, a style sheet written in XSLT that transforms the XML data into a graphical output.

I want to release the whole project under one license and since the heart of the project is the resume data, which is not at all software, it seems like Creative Commons would be the correct approach.

However, there is some software process involved in the project and it is impossible to separate out just the data.

Should I use a software license for this or a Creative Commons license?

Mainly I am just interested in the larger distinction between a "Software" license, such as the MIT license, and a creative works license which are explicitly not for software however, the only restriction I care about is attributions. I just don't want someone able to pass the project or data contained as his or her own.

"I want to release the whole project under one license" - Why? If you want to be clear, say "the software program contained in foo.cpp" is licensed under license A, and the resume data and style sheet are licensed under license B. The whole point of the license is to make the terms clear. — Brandin, Nov 13 '17 at 10:59
Is the software intrinsically linked to the current data set or can you imagine that someone could use the software with a different data set? — Bart van Ingen Schenau, Nov 13 '17 at 16:15
@BartvanIngenSchenau they are intrinsically linked. The software is written explicitly for this data and would not work with other data. — Startec, Nov 13 '17 at 20:23

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 28 '20 at 15:58

Should I use a software license for this or a Creative Commons license?

You can do either, nothing prevents you from releasing data or any copyrightable material under a software license.

At the bottom of this page at GNU.org you will find license recommendations on releasing data.

However, there is another issue to consider. Your resume (CV) is also a statement about what you have done, where you have studied etc. Allowing fake or modified versions of this is not useful.

So perhaps the best approach is to create a default version of the resume that contains dummy or placeholder data, and release that under a free licence (CC-BY); and release your resume (and the graphical output) under CC-BY-ND: For more on this, see GNU.org / Licenses for Works stating a Viewpoint (e.g., Opinion or Testimony)

What license should I use with a project that is primarily data?

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