Re: about legality of SPSS data file (SAV)

[Alan Mead]

This is a legal question and a proper answer would require legal advice, which I cannot give.  But I hazard a guess that the original concern was not raised by a lawyer, so I'll add a few points to the excellent answers that you have already received. 

What law is being broken? I don't see what law you might be breaking?  As other' have pointed out, you own your data.  With MP3s, for example, the legal issue is (I'm told) patent law and that only MP3 encoding software infringes, not playing or merely owning an MP3.

Also, many other programs have the capability to read data created by other programs, including commercial rivals.  My copy of LibreOffice reads Microsoft Word files.  My copy of Microsoft Word reads Wordperfect files.  My old copy of Wordperfect read many formats.  I have never heard that any of these many, many examples have ever been threatened with legal action for supporting data exchange.  SPSS itself reads and writes Excel files. Also, specifically reading SPSS SAV files is hardly a unique trick.  R, for example, can read them as can many other programs.  In fact, I haven't checked lately, but for years SPSS distributed software libraries designed to be incorporated into other software in order to read SPSS SAV files.

In fact, if it were illegal to read SPSS SAV files from non-SPSS software, that would be very bad for SPSS because it would strongly discourage many individuals from using SPSS. For example, I believe it would be illegal for some government employees to use such a format.  This is not a hypothetical issue; I am old enough to have known faculty members who lost important datasets because they were on punch cards.  Also, I have powerpoint presentations from the 90's that MS Office 2010 will not open.  If SPSS were not going to be supported in the future, it would be dumb of any of us to leave our data in such a format given that there are alternatives (like tab-delimited ASCII or UTF8). So, having R, PSPP, etc. able to read SAV files is actually very healthy for SPSS.  I don't know if I'll have SPSS in ten years, but I'm pretty sure I can find a copy of PSPP or R.

Finally, there is a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt around open-source software.  Commercial software is rigidly mercenary and sometimes viciously anti-user and many people seem to think that's right and proper.  The Free software movement was started specifically in opposition to this anti-user mentality.  And people are often biased; for example, many still believe that "you get what you pay for" and therefore cost-free software cannot be any good--that's always confused me... Do you want some wage slave forging your code?  Or someone who is passionate about the project and whose sole recompense is likely the warm glow of a job well done?  By all means, adhere to the ridiculous terms of commercial software (if you must use it) but please don't ever think it's "normal" or "right" or that free=bad, and don't listen to those who think this way.

-Alan

On 7/18/2013 6:25 AM, Elizabeth Williams wrote:

Hey guys!

For some time I use PSPP because its features are enough for what I need, so I sidelined SPSS, leaving your license expire.

However, I made an inquiry to technical support regarding the use of SAV files in other software such as PSPP and have told me is technically illegal. That saved using SPSS SAV files or exported by another program, are for the use of SPSS.

Is that really so?

I've alarmed me much, and I pierced my format databases in POR or openoffice spreadsheets.

This reminds me problems with "microsoft files" or any other private archive.

Is it possible that in the future PSPP manages an own file type?
It could be the style of the OpenDocument or OpenRaster projects. I do not think breaking the current compatibility with SPSS, but confidence could leave users like me, keeping your data in free software.

It might even have its own features, such as save comments, graphics and results ;).

Thank you very much for your great work.

Elizabeth

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-- 
Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Industrial and Organizational Psychology Program
Department of Psychology
Lewis College of Human Sciences
Illinois Institute of Technology
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