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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
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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
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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
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NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED
INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD
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ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER
PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES.
LGPLv2.1
GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2.1, February 1999
Copyright (C) 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 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
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and that you are informed that you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that
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For example, if you distribute copies of the library, whether
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We protect your rights with a two-step method: (1) we
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To protect each distributor, we want to make it very clear
that there is no warranty for the free library. Also, if the
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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
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license obtained for a version of the library must be
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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
