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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 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
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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
41
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. Amore 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
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