Warranty Information 45
Lesser license provides advantages in certain special
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For example, on rare occasions, there may be a special need to
encourage the widest possible use of a certain library, so that it
becomes a de-facto standard. To achieve this, non-free programs
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free library does the same job as widely used non-free libraries.
In this case, there is little to gain by limiting the free library to
free software only, so we use the Lesser General Public License.
In other cases, permission to use a particular library in non-free
programs enables a greater number of people to use a large body
of free software. For example, permission to use the GNU C
Library in non-free programs enables many more people to use
the whole GNU operating system, as well as its variant, the GNU/
Linux operating system.
Although the Lesser General Public License is Less protective of
the users' freedom, it does ensure that the user of a program that
is linked with the Library has the freedom and the wherewithal to
run that program using a modified version of the Library.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow. Pay close attention to the difference between
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The former contains code derived from the library, whereas the
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TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING,
DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
0) This License Agreement applies to any software library or
other program which contains a notice placed by the copyright
holder or other authorized party saying it may be distributed
under the terms of this Lesser General Public License (also called
"this License"). Each licensee is addressed as "you".
A "library" means a collection of software functions and/or data
prepared so as to be conveniently linked with application
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The "Library", below, refers to any such software library or work
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for making modifications to it. For a library, complete source
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