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It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other
property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims; this section has the sole
purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made generous
contributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in reliance
on consistent application of that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or
she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence
of the rest of this License.
8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries
either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who
places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical
distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted
only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License
incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the
General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in
spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or
concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a
version number of this License which applies to it and “any later version”, you have the
option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a
version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free
Software Foundation.
10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose
distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission. For
software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free
Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will
be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our
free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS
NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY
APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING
THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE
PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL
NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED
TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER
PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS
PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING
ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR
DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO
OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR
OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the
public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can
redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the
start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each
file should have at least the “copyright” line and a pointer to where the full notice is
found.
<one line to give the program’s name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place,
Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an
interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author Gnomovision comes with
ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type ‘show w’. This is free software, and
you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type ‘show c’ for details.
The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should show the appropriate parts
of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be called
something other than ‘show w’ and ‘show c’; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu
items–whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if
any, to sign a “copyright disclaimer” for the program, if necessary. Here is a sample;
alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
‘Gnomovision’ (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more
useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you
want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.
■ GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2.1, February 1999
Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document,
but changing it is not allowed.
[This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL. It also counts as the successor of
the GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the version number 2.1.]
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change
it. By contrast, the GNU General Public Licenses are intended to guarantee your freedom to
share and change free software–to make sure the software is free for all its users.
This license, the Lesser General Public License, applies to some specially designated
software packages–typically libraries–of the Free Software Foundation and other
authors who decide to use it. You can use it too, but we suggest you first think carefully
about whether this license or the ordinary General Public License is the better strategy
to use in any particular case, based on the explanations below.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom of use, not price. Our General
Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of
free software (and charge for this service if you wish); that you receive source code or can
get it if you want it; that you can change the software and use pieces of it in new free
programs; and that you are informed that you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid distributors to deny you
these rights or to ask you to surrender these rights. These restrictions translate to certain
responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the library or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of the library, whether gratis or for a fee, you must
give the recipients all the rights that we gave you. You must make sure that they, too,
receive or can get the source code. If you link other code with the library, you must
provide complete object files to the recipients, so that they can relink them with the
library after making changes to the library and recompiling it. And you must show them
these terms so they know their rights.
We protect your rights with a two-step method: (1) we copyright the library, and (2) we
offer you this license, which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or
modify the library.
To protect each distributor, we want to make it very clear that there is no warranty for
the free library. Also, if the library is modified by someone else and passed on, the
recipients should know that what they have is not the original version, so that the
original author’s reputation will not be affected by problems that might be introduced
by others.
Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to the existence of any free program. We
wish to make sure that a company cannot effectively restrict the users of a free program
by obtaining a restrictive license from a patent holder. Therefore, we insist that any
patent license obtained for a version of the library must be consistent with the full
freedom of use specified in this license.
Most GNU software, including some libraries, is covered by the ordinary GNU General
Public License. This license, the GNU Lesser General Public License, applies to certain
designated libraries, and is quite different from the ordinary General Public License. We
use this license for certain libraries in order to permit linking those libraries into non-
free programs.
When a program is linked with a library, whether statically or using a shared library, the
combination of the two is legally speaking a combined work, a derivative of the original
library. The ordinary General Public License therefore permits such linking only if the
entire combination fits its criteria of freedom. The Lesser General Public License
permits more lax criteria for linking other code with the library.
We call this license the “Lesser” General Public License because it does Less to protect the
user’s freedom than the ordinary General Public License. It also provides other free
software developers Less of an advantage over competing non-free programs. These
disadvantages are the reason we use the ordinary General Public License for many libraries.