23
3.Additional information
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. However, the
Lesser license provides
advantages in certain special
circumstances.
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
must be allowed to use the
library. A more frequent case is
that a 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 a "work based on the
library" and a "work that uses
the library". The former contains
code derived from the library,
whereas the latter must be
combined with the library in order
to run.
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
