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For example, if you distribute copies of the library, whether gratis
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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 per-
mission to copy, distribute and/or modify the library.
To protect each distributor, we want to make it very clear that the-
re 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 re-
putation will not be affected by problems that might be introduced
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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 ef-
fectively restrict the users of a free program by obtaining a restricti-
ve 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 ordi-
nary GNU General Public License. This license, the GNU Lesser Gene-
ral Public License, applies to certain designated libraries, and is quite
different from the ordinary General Public License. We use this licen-
se 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 com-
bined work, a derivative of the original library. The ordinary General
Public License therefore permits such linking only if the entire com-
bination 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
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