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To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you
to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of
the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must
pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they,
too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know
their rights.
Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on
the software, and (2) offer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute
and/or modify it.
For the developers' and authors' protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty
for this free software. For both users' and authors' sake, the GPL requires that modified
versions be marked as changed, so that their problems will not be attributed erroneously to
authors of previous versions.
Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modified versions of the
software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible
with the aim of protecting users' freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of
such abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is
most unacceptable. Therefore, we have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the
practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we stand
ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to
protect the freedom of users.
Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. States should not allow
patents to restrict development and use of software on general-purpose computers, but in
those that do, we wish to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could
make it effectively proprietary. To prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to
render the program non-free.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
0. Definitions.
“This License” refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
“Copyright” also means copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds of works, such as
semiconductor masks.
“The Program” refers to any copyrightable work licensed under this License. Each licensee is
addressed as “you”. “Licensees” and “recipients” may be individuals or organizations.
To “modify” a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the work in a fashion requiring
copyright permission, other than the making of an exact copy. The resulting work is called a
“modified version” of the earlier work or a work “based on” the earlier work.
