Hi,
I am looking to use a database / data file shared under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 License for my website. It says under the license that I am free to remix the work as long as I attribute the work and I share it under the same license.
That said, would I have to
1) open source my website?
2) make every service on the website using the database entirely free?
3) leave my website ads-free?
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode
The license for the data in the database are entirely separate than the code for your site.
As I read it, if you redistribute the database, package it and send it to other people, you must attribute the work and share the database.
If it is the back-end of your website, then you certainly don't have to do any of those things.
(And if didn't want the database used in a commercial context, the originator would have picked the creative commons non-commercial share-alike license)
Licenses' terms most commonly only apply when you want to redistribute a product. "Making available" through publishing parts on a website are usually well within the bounds of intended use and therefore don't count as redistributions.
So to answer all three questions: no.
If you wanted to publish a downloadable database of the original data (or a significant part thereof) with or without modifications, you're bound by the license to use the same (or possibly a compatible) license.
Once again, this will have no ramifications on your site source code's licensing. That is yours (or it remains bound under the license you received it under).
It'll be pretty difficult to get a legal answer in a technical forum...
Having said that (and IANAL):
Your database is the "work" or "adaption". Your web site is the "collection".
In section 4a (where I stopped reading) it states:
You must include a copy of, or the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for, this License with every copy of the Work You Distribute or Publicly Perform... You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties with every copy of the Work You Distribute or Publicly Perform.
and 1j:
Publicly Perform: ... to broadcast and rebroadcast the Work by any means including signs, sounds or images.
Your web site is the public performance of the database (Being signs/language and/or images). As such, you need to include the license notices, and the license on your web site somewhere.
Apart from that, make money off ads, keep it closed and don't distribute the data you collect.
Also, you could send a request to the database author to answer this question with his interpretation (which may or may not be the correct legal interpretation - but it would be interesting)
Notes: I am skeptical about my reading of what "signs" mean - I am essentially guessing that that can represents language. Either that, or your web site is a visual (image) representation of the database.