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
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